Israel denies report of Iran attack plan
[Claud Cockburn’s law: Never believe anything until it’s been
officially denied.]
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070224/3/46wc8.html
ISRAEL DENIES REPORT IT IS PLANNING AN IRAN ATTACK By Jonathan Saul
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s deputy defence minister denied on
Saturday that Israel was in talks with the United States to use Iraqi
airspace as part of possible plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites.
The Daily Telegraph, citing an unnamed senior Israeli defence
official, said on Saturday that Israel had sought permission from the
U.S. Pentagon to be able to use an “air corridor” in Iraq in the
event that the Jewish state decided to launch air strikes on Iranian
nuclear facilities.
“We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such
as these (airspace passage) are crucially important,” the Daily
Telegraph quoted the Israeli official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, as saying.
“If we don’t sort these issues out now we could have a situation
where American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other,”
he added, according to the newspaper’s Web site.
Asked if Israel had turned to the U.S. to use Iraqi airspace in any
possible attack, Ephraim Sneh told Israel Radio: “No such approach
has been made — that is clear.”
“Those who do not want to take political, diplomatic, economic steps
against Iran are diverting attention to the mission we are supposedly
said to be conducting,” Sneh said.
“(They) are anxious to spread the idea that we are planning to attack
Iran in order to absolve themselves of the need to do the things that
have been requested of them,” he added.
Israel and the West accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons
under the guise of a civilian atomic power program, which Tehran denies.
Iran has said it wants to negotiate with the Europeans and even the
United States but has refused to halt its nuclear enrichment
activities as a pre-condition for talks.
Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear
arsenal, sent warplanes to bomb an atomic reactor in Iraq in 1981.
Neither Israel nor the United States has ruled out military force on
Iran, although Washington says its priority is to reach a diplomatic
solution.
Israeli strategic analysts have said it would go against Israeli
military doctrine to seek U.S. permission for any possible strike on
Iran given the need for total secrecy.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Saturday that the United
States and its allies must not allow Iran to become a nuclear power.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany
will meet in London next week to discuss possible further steps in
addition to U.N. sanctions barring the transfer of nuclear technology
and know-how that were imposed in December.