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| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 13, 2005 |
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| Bushehr nuclear plant |
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Israel and the United States tried to play down a report in London's Sunday Times which claimed that Israel has a plan ready to attack Iran's nuclear reactor, and that the Bush Administration would not block the attack if all diplomatic efforts fail to curtail Iran's nuclear weapons program.
The Sunday Times said Israel had "drawn up plans for a combined air and ground attack on Iranian nuclear installations," and that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's inner cabinet -- meeting in secret session last month at his Sycamore Ranch -- gave "initial authorization" for an attack.
The article painted a graphic image of a combined ground and air assault on the Bushehr nuclear facility, including the use of special-forces commandoes in Iranian uniform, bomb-bearing dogs, and F-15s with specially-fitted bunker-busting munitions purchased from the United States for precisely this purpose.
The forces have training for months in the Negev desert. Only one "full dress rehearsal" remains. But Israel is waiting for diplomatic efforts to fail, and for Iran to begin processing uranium, a sign that the Iranian weapons development had, in the words of one Israeli source, "passed the point of no return."
"If all efforts to persuade Iran to drop its plans to produce nuclear weapons should fail, the US administration will authorize Israel to attack,"
said one Israeli security source, according to the Sunday Times report.
The report quoted Israeli officials as saying that for more than a year, its special forces have been operating a listening post close to the Iranian border in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Israel is also said to have deployed intelligence-gathering submarines in the Gulf and changed the orbit of its Ofek-6 spy satellite to cover Iran. Unlike in its attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, the Israelis are said to be co-ordinating with
American forces, since any air-launched attack on Iran would require Israeli warplanes to travese Turkey and approach Iraqi airspace controlled by the Pentagon.
Both Washington and Jerusalem acknoeldge that whoever carries out any attack, the world will see it as a joint conspiracy. But the nations appear ready to take that risk.
The reason? The Sunday Times quotes US military officials as describing Israel as a "one bomb country" -- small enough to be destroyed by a single nuclear strike. As the domed reactor of Bushehr has risen steadily, Israeli officials have warned they will not tolerate "atomic ayatollahs" pointing nuclear missiles at Jerusalem.
US, Israeli officials are evasive about plans
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice avoided the question, couching her response in ambiguous terms. "The US administration is not going to authorize anything here. We clearly have a diplomatic path ahead of us," Rice stressed.
The United States and Europe were speaking in a unified voice on Iran, Rice said. "What we were able to achieve over the last few weeks is a really clear common purpose and common approach," she said, "The Iranians can't have a nuclear weapon and that is what everyone has said."
Speaking for Israel Sunday, Knesset Member Ephraim Sneh (Labor) also would not directly refute the report. He said that military action would be taken only if all else failed, and that his government remained hopeful that the international community would reach a diplomatic accommodation with the Islamic republic.
Sneh, a member of the Knesset's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee and a retired general, told Army Radio that the United States would play an important role in how the situation is resolved.
"The Iranian threat is an existential threat to the state of Israel. Military action is the very last resort," he said. "We have to ensure that other steps, diplomatic steps are carried out first. Here the United States plays a leading role and I hope it will fill it."
Sneh did not confirm whether Israel has plans in place to strike Iran.
Asked whether Israel has such plans, Vice Premier Shimon Peres replied: "I don't think so."
Meanwhile, Iranian officials on Saturday dismissed proposed US economic incentives aimed at coaxing Iran into dropping its nuclear weapons plans, although an Iranian envoy in Europe admitted that there appears to be a "new awakening" in Washington.
The United States agreed to endorse Iranian membership in the coveted World Trade Organization and to approve the sale of civilian aircraft parts to Teheran if it consented to demands that it scrap or permanently freeze nuclear enrichment plans. The US moves put the United States in synch with Britain, France and Germany.
European negotiators, in a document obtained by The Associated Press Friday, said they would back US demands of Security Council action if their talks with Iran fail.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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