Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (right) meets with presidential candidate Barack Obama
White House hopeful Barack Obama said Monday sanctions and diplomacy must be made to bite against Iran so that Israel does not feel its “back is against the wall” and stages an attack.
A nuclear-armed Iran would be a “game-changer for the region,” allowing the Islamic republic to meddle through extremist proxies, intervene in Iraq and threaten oil supplies, the Democrat told about 250 voters at a meeting here.
“My job as president is to make sure we are tightening the screws on Iran diplomatically… to get sanctions in place so that Iran starts making a different calculation,” the Illinois senator said.
“And we’ve got to do that before Israel feels like its back is against the wall.”
The Israeli premier Ehud Olmert intends to visit Russia to foil a possible arms deal to Syria, according to Yediot Ahronot on Friday.
The paper said that Olmert threatened Syria that Israel will destroy any weapons they buy from Russia telling the Syrians that it would be a loss for Syria to pay money for arms that Israel will work to destroy.
These Israeli reaction were prompted by President Bashar al-Asad’s visit to Russia to express his support for the Russian government in the Caucuses conflict and a probable arms deal.
Israel and the USA have been angered by reports that Syria has accepted Russian deployment of Iskander missile system on its territories. Syria has officially said that there is no truth to such reports.
Olmert has pre-empted Asad’s visit by a phone call to Russia’s President, Dmitry Medvedev during which he urged President Medvedev not to sell weapons to Syria and tried to belittle the role of Israel in supplying the Georgian army with weapons.
For his part, the Israeli war minister, Ehud Barak, said that Israel is watching the results of Asad’s visit to Russia closely, in particular the negotiations to equip the Syrian army with better weapons.
The Israeli foreign minister Tzipi livni had earlier urged Russia not to conclude any arms deals with Syria and said that both Israel and Russia have interest in Syria not getting long range missiles.
More than 100 nonaligned nations backed Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear power on Wednesday, an endorsement sought by Tehran in its standoff with the U.N. Security Council over its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
The decision came as supreme Iranian leader Ayatolla Ali Khamenei pledged to continue the country’s nuclear program.
Senior Iranian officials depicted the support from a high-level conference of the Nonaligned Movement as deflating claims by the U.S. and its allies that most of the international community wanted Iran to stop enrichment.
The conference’s backing, which echoes the group’s previous declarations, acts to “remove this notion that the international community opposes the nuclear activities of Iran,” said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s top representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the endorsement from the 115 countries present at the Tehran conference sends a “strong positive signal that the only way is negotiation and dialogue” over the nuclear standoff.
“Get the message,” he said, in blunt comments indirectly aimed at the U.S. and its Western allies, the nations at the forefront of accusations that Tehran wants to build nuclear arms. “Come to the negotiating table.”
Support was expressed in a three-page declaration in Farsi, translated by The Associated Press. It said the conference “reaffirmed the basic and inalienable right of all states, to develop research, production and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.”
Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen (L) salutes Israeli Chief of Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi who recently warned that all options must be prepared against Iran.
Recent talks the United States held with Iran are aimed at creating legitimacy for a potential attack against Iranian nuclear facilities, defense officials speculated on Sunday as Defense Minister Ehud Barak headed to Washington for talks with senior administration officials.
Barak will travel to Washington and New York and will hold talks with his counterpart Robert Gates, Vice President Dick Cheney, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Michael Mullen, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Officials said it was likely that President George W. Bush would join the meeting between Barak and Hadley. On Wednesday, Barak will fly to New York for a brief meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon.
Barak’s departure to the US came as IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi returned to Israel on Sunday from a week-long visit to the US as Mullen’s guest. Ashkenazi held talks with Cheney, Hadley and other senior officials with a focus on the Iranian nuclear program.
“There is a lot of strategic thinking concerning Iran going on right now but no one has yet to make a decision what to do,” said a top IDF officer, involved in the dialogue between Israel and the US. “We are still far away from the point where military officers are poring over maps together planning an operation.”
In recent weeks, Mullen has said publicly that he is opposed to military action against Iran which would open a “third front” for the US military which is currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Barak’s talks in the US come a little over a week after the Bush administration sent its number three diplomat to Geneva to participate in European Union talks with Iran over its nuclear program.
The move led to reports that the US was changing its isolation tactic vis-à-vis Iran but Israeli defense officials speculated Sunday that the move was really a ploy to buy international support in the event that Bush decides to attack Iran in his last months in office.
“This way they will be able to say they tried everything,” one official speculated. “This increases America’s chances of gaining more public support domestically as well as the support of European nations which are today opposed to military action.”
Diplomatic officials have speculated that the Iran-US talks were also connected to the presidential elections.
According to the IDF officer, the frequent meetings between Israel and the US in recent weeks – Mullen was in Israel in June – is a sign of the strong ties between the two countries as well as the mutual interest both take in different regional issues such as Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas and Syria.
Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton said the United States should assist Israel in any strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The ex-U.S. envoy in an op-ed in the July 15 Wall Street Journal said the United States must consider what assistance to extend to Israel before and after an airstrike.
“We will be blamed for the strike anyway, and certainly feel whatever negative consequences result, so there is compelling logic to make it as successful as possible,” wrote Bolton, who was known for his hawkish foreign policy views.
“At a minimum, we should place no obstacles in Israel’s path, and facilitate its efforts where we can.” Bolton said the efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions through sanctions had failed, and even if they could still be enacted, the time for their effectiveness has passed.
Israeli jets practice bombing Iran over Iraqi airspace
Sources in Iraq’s Defense Ministry say for past month Israel using American bases to conduct overflights as part of rehearsal for possible bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities; IDF: Reports are unfounded
The IDF dismissed Friday evening earlier reports claiming that Air Force jets have been training in Iraq ahead of a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the Iraqi reports were “unfounded.”
According to the reports, sources in the Iraqi Defense Ministry told a local news network Friday that Israeli fighter jets have been flying over Iraqi territory for over a month in preparation for potential strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, adding that the aircraft have been landing in American bases following the overflights.
An Iraqi website has claimed that Israeli warplanes have been using Iraqi airspace to practice for possible bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.
Nahrainnet.com, quoting unnamed sources in the Iraqi defence ministry, said that for the past month Israel has been using US bases in Iraq to conduct overflights.
Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari dismissed the report on Friday.
“We have no information about Israeli jets using Iraqi airspace for rehearsals,” he told AFP.
In Jerusalem, meanwhile, an Israeli military spokesman told AFP he was aware of the report and said, “I have no information on this.”
The US military did not comment on the report.
Word of Israel’s alleged Air Force maneuvers in Iraq has reached Iran. The sources said the US has boosted security in and around the bases used by Israel during the exercises.
According to the Defense Ministry officials, retired Iraqi army officers in the Al Anbar district reported that fighter jets have been regularly entering Iraqi airspace from Jordan and landing at the airport near Haditha. The sources estimated that should the Israeli jets take off from the American bases it would take them no more than five minutes to reach Iran’s nuclear reactor in Bushehr.
The sources estimated that should the Israeli jets take off from the American bases it would take them no more than five minutes to reach Iran’s nuclear reactor in Bushehr.
American officials said recently that more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters took part in maneuvers over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June, apparently a rehearsal for a potential bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Israeli war minister Ehud Barak will visit Washington next week to meet with top U.S. government officials and President Bush in what some are suggesting will be the final planning session in anticipation of a military strike on Iran.
Barak will hold talks for three days with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – as well as U.S. President George Bush.
Barak’s visit will also precede a tour by Israeli military chief of staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who is set to meet with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen.
The trip follows Mossad chief Meir Dagan’s visit to Washington during which he met top intelligence officials.
“The visits of the Israeli officials came as an intense debate continued to rage inside the US administration between those who favored military action, led by Cheney, and those opposed, led by Gates,” according to a Jerusalem Post report.
President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.
“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official said. But the Israelis have also been told that they can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support.
Nor is it certain that Bush’s amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility. Tehran’s test launches of medium-range ballistic missiles last week were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US targets.
“It’s really all down to the Israelis,” the Pentagon official added. “This administration will not attack Iran. This has already been decided. But the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn’t believe that anything but force will deter Iran.”
The official added that Israel had not so far presented Bush with a convincing military proposal. “If there is no solid plan, the amber will never turn to green,” he said.
There was also resistance inside the Pentagon from officers concerned about Iranian retaliation. “The uniform people are opposed to the attack plans, mainly because they think it will endanger our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the source said.
Iran test-fired more weaponry on Thursday as it continued war games, ignoring global concern over its launch of a broadside of missiles amid efforts to end the crisis over its nuclear programme.
The weapons fired in the Gulf by the naval section of the Revolutionary Guards included shore-to-sea, surface-to-surface and sea-to-air missiles, state television said. No details were given on the names of the missiles.
It said the war games also included firing the Hoot (Whale) torpedo that Iran unveiled in April 2006 and which it says is a super-fast weapon capable of hitting enemy submarines.
Iran on Wednesday test-fired its Shahab-3 long-range missile, which the Islamic republic says can reach Israel and US bases in the Gulf, and eight other more medium-range missiles.
The move sparked major concern in Western governments which say they fear Iran’s nuclear drive is aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge that Tehran vehemently denies.
In a separate land exercise late on Wednesday, the military also fired “longer and medium range missiles,” state television said, showing several missiles being fired into the night sky.
Footage was also broadcast of the naval manoeuvres, showing divers fixing mines to a pier, missiles being fired from shore-based mobile launchers and the Hoot speeding towards a target.
Israel’s defence minister has warned of his country’s readiness to act against Iran if it feels threatened.
Ehud Barak, speaking in Tel Aviv, said Israel had “proved in the past that it won’t hesitate to act when its vital security interests are at stake”.
He spoke as Iran’s testing of missiles that could reach Israel stoked tensions between the two, and with the US.
But Mr Barak added that diplomatic solutions should be pursued before other options were taken up.
“Currently the focus is international sanctions and vigorous diplomatic activity, and these avenues should be exhausted,” he said.
US warning
Over the past two days, the Iranian military has tested missiles, including one that it says could reach Israel.
State media said the tests included the first night launch of the Shahab-3 missile, said to have a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles), along with shore-to-sea, surface-to-surface and sea-to-air missiles.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US had increased its security in the region and Iran should not be “confused” about US capabilities.
Israel has responded to the missile tests by putting on display one of its aircraft that it says can spy on Iran.
The state-run Israel Aerospace Industries says it has equipped its Eitam aeroplane, unveiled a year ago, with sophisticated intelligence-gathering systems.
Mr Barak spoke of the “potential for accords, particularly with the Palestinians and the Syrians”, but stressed that the situation was very complex.
Quoted by Israeli news website Ynet, Mr Barak said: “We must work towards an accord – but if not, then we must strike our enemy when it is required.”
He also warned that Israel must consider the reactions from other nations in the region that could be provoked by action against Iran.
“The responses of our adversaries must be taken into account. Hamas and Hezbollah and the Syrians and the Iranians – there is activity all around us. And there exists a potential for confrontation.”
Meanwhile, the AFP news agency has issued a warning that a still image of the missiles being launched, one of several distributed by Iran, was “apparently digitally altered”.
The photograph, published on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards website and reproduced by media organisations – including the BBC News website – showed four missiles taking off from a desert launch-pad.
But a similar image, issued by the Associated Press, shows one of the missiles still in its launcher after apparently failing to fire.
The BBC News website’s picture editor, Phil Coomes, said: “Having examined the photograph from AFP, it can be seen that parts have been edited, with smoke trails and parts of the foreground being cloned.”
In recent weeks, both Israel and Iran have been testing and showing off their military hardware, each saying that in the event of provocation it is more than capable of defending itself.
The Israeli air force recently carried out a large-scale exercise over the Mediterranean – regarded by many observers as a dress rehearsal should the order be given to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel believes Iran is building nuclear weapons, although Tehran insists its nuclear programme is purely for civilian energy.
Western leaders have been trying to convince Iran to stop enriching uranium, which it has continued doing despite sanctions from the UN and the European Union.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Iran’s missile test bolsters the U.S. argument that Tehran is a threat. He also says it counters Russia’s case against the need for a missile defense system in Europe.
Gates says the U.S. has said for some time that there is a real threat Iran could develop long-range missiles to use against Europe. He says Tehran’s launch of several missiles Wednesday helps make that point.
The visiting Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, carried out a guided tour of Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip over the weekend. It was led by the IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and OCs Northern and Southern Commands, Maj. Gens. Eisenkott and Galant.
He was briefed on IDF tactics in a war on all these potential flashpoints in the context of a comprehensive conflict with Iran and then held long conversations with defense minister Ehud Barak and Ashkenazi.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that it is very unusual for the top American commander to carry out a close, on-the-spot study of Israel’s potential war fronts. It was prompted on the one hand by skepticism in parts of the US high command of Israel’s ability to simultaneously strike Iran’s nuclear installations and fight off attacks from three borders while, at the same time, Adm. Mullen showed he was open to persuasion that the IDF’s prospective tactics and war plans were workable.
Israel must destroy Iran’s nuclear program within the next 12 months or risk being attacked with an atomic bomb itself, the former head of the Mossad told the British Sunday Telegraph.
“As an intelligence officer working with the worst-case scenario, I can tell you we should be prepared,” Shabtai Shavit, who served as Mossad chief from 1989 to 1996, told the British paper.
“We should do whatever necessary on the defensive side, on the offensive side, on the public opinion side for the West, in case sanctions don’t work. What’s left is a military action.”
“The time that is left to be ready is getting shorter all the time,” Shavit told the Telegraph.
Shavit added that a victory by Democratic nominee Barack Obama in the November presidential election would significantly lower the chances that the U.S. would approve of military action against Iran.
“If [Republican candidate John] McCain gets elected, he could really easily make a decision to go for it,” Shavit told the paper. “If it’s Obama: no. My prediction is that he won’t go for it, at least not in his first term in the White House.”
Shavit told the Telegraph, however, that Israel would not hesitate to go it alone, with or without U.S. support.
“When it comes to decisions that have to do with our national security and our own survival, at best we may update the Americans that we are intending or planning or going to do something,” Shavit told the paper. “It’s not a precondition, [getting] an American agreement,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday he did not believe Israel was in a position to attack the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
“They know full well what the consequences of such an act would be,” Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki told reporters.
Speculation about a possible attack on Iran because of its disputed nuclear ambitions has risen since a report this month said Israel had practiced such a strike, prompting increasingly tough talk of retaliation, if pushed, from Tehran.
Mottaki said Israel was still dealing with the consequences of its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and was also suffering a “crisis of deepening illegitimacy” in the Middle East region.
“That’s why we do not see the Zionist regime in a situation in which they would want to engage in such an adventurism,” he said when asked about the possibility of an Israeli attack.
A senior Iranian commander says the country is digging some ’320,000 graves’ in its bordering provinces for future slain invaders.
Brigadier General Mir-Faisal Baqerzadeh, the Head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defense, said Sunday that the decision had been approved by Iran’s Armed Forces Headquarters.
“We will dig 15,000 to 20,000 graves in each of the border provinces,” he said.
“We do not wish the families of enemy soldiers to experience what Americans had to go through in the aftermath of the Vietnam War,” added Brig. Gen. Baqerzadeh, who is also the head of the search committee for missing soldiers.
The commander said the preemptive measures would decrease the time slain soldiers would be ’missing in action’.
“The burial of slain soldiers will be carried out decently and in little time,” he continued.
Baqerzadeh added that the decision is in line with the Islamic Republic’s commitment to comply with the Geneva Convention and the additional protocol regarding wartime cooperation between Iran and the Red Cross.
Israeli War Minister Threatens Palestinian Holocaust
Media who became obsessed with “wipe Israel off the map” misquote scurry to defend Vilnai after disgraceful comments
Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has provoked outrage after threatening Palestinians with a “holocaust,” but the same media who obsessed about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “wipe Israel off the map” misquote are scurrying to defend Vilnai’s disgraceful comments.
“The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves, “Vilnai told the Army Radio on Friday.
However, in a Reuters report, despite the fact that the rest of the statement was translated into English, the incendiary word “holocaust” remained in its original Hebrew version – “shoah”.
Why Reuters would choose to print the rest of the statement in English yet cherry-pick one word to remain in Hebrew is obvious – they don’t want to draw any attention to the fact that Vilnai is threatening the Palestinians with a holocaust.
Vilnai’s spokesman has attempted to diffuse the controversy by claiming Vilnai was speaking in terms of a “disaster” and not a holocaust.
But you can’t have your cake and eat it.
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allegedly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” the media blindly repeated the quote ad infinitum, and it became second nature for them to carelessly drop it into any propaganda piece intended to hype Iran’s supposed threat to Israel and the world.
Barely a day goes by that Israeli, American and British warhawks don’t spew the phrase like a broken record in an attempt to create a catchy cliché and brand market the next jaunt of imperial blood-letting.
No matter that, according to numerous different translations, Ahmadinejad never used the word “map,” instead his statement was in the context of time and applied to the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem. Ahmadinejad was expressing his future hope that the Zionist regime in Israel would fall, not that Iran was going to physically annex the country and its population.
To claim Ahmadinejad has issued a rallying cry to ethnically cleanse Israel is akin to saying that Churchill wanted to murder all Germans when he stated his desire to crush the Nazis. This is about the demise of a corrupt occupying power, not the deaths of millions of innocent people.
On the other hand, even as Reuters is forced to admit, Vilnai’s use of the word “shoah” is intrinsically allied to the context of “Discussions of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews,” adding, “Many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other contemporary events.”
So will the media make reference to one of Israel’s top minister’s expressing his wish to inflict a Palestinian “holocaust” in all future reports about Israel’s geopolitical motives, just as they do with Ahmadinejad’s supposed call to wipe Israel off the map?
There’s more chance of Yasser Arafat and Menachem Begin coming back from the dead to broker a peace settlement.
Desperate for a Gulf of Tonkin style incident to reinvigorate momentum for an attack on Iran after the National Intelligence Estimate derailed the push for war, the Pentagon is crying foul over the alleged hostile intent of Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats after an incident in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend.
In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels, reports the Associated Press.U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. “It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Of course, the hyping of such an incident is directly timed to correlate with Bush’s visit to the middle east this week in which he will make a desperate attempt to resurrect the boogeyman of Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons program.
He will also be briefed by Israeli security officials about “Iran’s nuclear programme – and how it could be destroyed,” reports the London Times.
But that matters not to war junkie Neo-Cons who will use any pretext to send more American boys and girls into the imperial meat-grinder in the interests of middle eastern hegemony and corporate blood money.
Numerous respected public figures, from Ron Paul to Zbigniew Brzezinski have warned that a Gulf of Tonkin style stunt could be pulled as a pretext for air strikes on Iran.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time the Bush administration has considered staging incidents as a justification for war. During Bush’s January 31 2003 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a scenario whereby Saddam Hussein would be goaded into shooting down a U2 spy plane painted in UN colors was discussed.
An Iranian official has dismissed Washington’s claims that IRGC speedboats harassed three US navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US vessels approached the Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, warning they were in the red zone, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Press TV on Monday.
He added that the Iranians had asked the warships to identify themselves, as such radio communications are usual between vessels in the Persian Gulf.
Although the Pentagon claimed that US sailors were given orders to open fire on the Iranian boats, the official confirmed no hostile encounter took place.
ISRAELI security officials are to brief President George W Bush on their latest intelligence about Iran’s nuclear programme – and how it could be destroyed – when he begins a tour of the Middle East in Jerusalem this week.
Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in Iran would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear operations. A range of military options has been prepared.
Last month it was revealed that the US National Intelligence Estimate report, drawing together information from 16 agencies, had concluded that Iran stopped a secret nuclear weapon programme in 2003.
Israeli intelligence is understood to agree that the project was halted around the time of America’s invasion of Iraq, but has “rock solid” information that it has since started up again.
While security officials are reluctant to reveal all their intelligence, fearing that leaks could jeopardise the element of surprise in any future attack, they are expected to present the president with fresh details of Iran’s enrichment of uranium – which could be used for civil or military purposes – and the development of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.
In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot this weekend, Bush argued that in spite of the US intelligence assessment, Iran still posed a threat.
“I read the intelligence report carefully,” Bush said. “In essence, what the report said was that Iran had a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons.
“I’m saying that a state which adopted a nontransparent policy and had a secret plan for developing nuclear weapons could easily develop an alternative plan for the same purpose. So to conclude from the intelligence report that there is no Iranian plan to develop nuclear weapons will be only a partial truth.”
Israeli security officials believe the only way to prevent uranium enrichment to military grade is to destroy Iranian installations. Many Israelis are eager to know whether America would give their country the green light to attack, as it did last September when Israel struck a mysterious nuclear site in Syria.
Bush refused to be drawn when asked whether he would support an Israeli attack. “My message to all countries in the region is that we are able to solve the problem in a diplomatic way,” he said, “but all options are on the table.”
The US President says a military option is on the table to halt Iran’s nuclear program but the issue should be solved ‘diplomatically’.
The best way to deal with Iranian nuclear crisis is to solve it ‘diplomatically’ and by exerting economic pressures, Bush said ahead of his nine-day trip to Middle East countries.
He added Washington, however, keeps all options on the table including a military attack to prevent Iran from what he called ‘building nuclear weapons’.
“We can solve this diplomatically, and that pressure must work. Of course, the US keeps all options on the table as part of its policy. But the best solution is to encourage Iranian isolation through international pressures,” Bush told Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
“We expect companies from around the world to place significant pressure on Iranian financial institutions, particularly those that are known to be involved in [nuclear] proliferation,” the President said.
“…The international response ought to be that, okay, whether or not you agree with the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) that they (Iran) had a (nuclear) program at one point of time,” he said.
The remarks came while the recent intelligence report compiled by 16 US spy agencies has confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.
After the release of the NIE, many politicians and analysts concluded that the Bush administration is accusing Iran of running a nuclear weapons program to wag another war in the region to take control of the Middle East energy resources.
A former senior CIA analyst says the United States and Israel are planning war against Iran before the next presidential election.
Ray McGovern said Monday despite a recent National Intelligence Estimate conceding that Iran is not conducting a nuclear weapons program, a joint US and Israeli war on the Islamic Republic is likely to happen.
The former analyst expounded that the close American relationship with Israel, which alleges Iran is a threat to its existence and to the international community, is the driving force behind a potential strike.
McGovern called on those wishing to prevent a military conflict with Iran to voice their opposition to President Bush’s headstrong approach towards Tehran and its nuclear program.
Although the report by US intelligence services has meant another embarrassment for the White House over its accusation against Tehran, the US president seems to be indifferent to the assessment.
President Bush, who is scheduled to visit Jerusalem in January, bald-facedly continues his rhetoric against the Islamic Republic, claiming Tehran poses a threat to the international community.
Former US Intelligence official: Israel will attack Iran
“I came back from a trip to Israel in November convinced that Israel would attack Iran,” Bruce Riedel, a former career CIA official and senior adviser to three US presidents – including George W. Bush – on Middle East and South Asian issues, told Newsweek Thursday, citing conversations he had with Mossad and Israeli defense officials.
“And that was before the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). This makes it even more likely. Israel is not going to allow its nuclear monopoly to be threatened,” the American magazine quoted Riedel as saying in an article titled, “What will Israel do?”.
Published in early December, the American NIE determined that Iran had shelved its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
According to Newsweek, “a rising tide of opinion in Israel’s intelligence and national-security circles believes that the NIE does signal American retreat-and, more profoundly, renewed Israeli isolation over what is deemed an existential threat out of Tehran.”
‘Israel has gotten away with it’
The magazine quoted Knesset Member Ephraim Sneh, a former deputy defense minister who has “warned for years that Israel would eventually have to confront Iran alone,” as saying that “today we are closer to this situation than we were three weeks ago … we have to be prepared to forestall this threat on our own.”
David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington told Newsweek that Israel was likely encouraged by the non-reaction to their September air strike on a reported Syrian nuclear facility, “which may have been a test run for Iran, or at least a warning directed at Tehran”.
“Israel has gotten away with it in a sense,” Albright was quoted as saying. He suggested that any Israeli pre-emptive action might not be a “traditional strike” but could involve more “sabotage of equipment”.
Newsweek said Israel also knows that the Arab states are “terrified of an Iranian nuclear power, possibly to the point of looking the other way at another such strike”.
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Israeli Defense Minister: “In Gaza, what’s important is to kill”… “even if it’s a three-year old child.”
As the Israeli government continues to hint that it will be launching a full-scale invasion of Gaza in the coming days, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli Army Radio, “For the moment, what’s important is to kill all those who want to fire Qassam [shells] against Israel.”
He recently implemented a policy whereby Israeli soldiers are ordered to shoot any known Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, regardless of whether there were homemade shells (so-called ‘Qassams’) fired from that location or not.
“The Israeli Army will continue the extremely effective operations of its special forces in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “Each day that passes brings us closer to a vigorous military operation.”
But the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is apparently hesitant to launch such and invasion so soon after a peace meeting with the Palestinian Authority. He is afraid it will make Israel look like they don’t want peace. In fact, Israel has killed fifteen Palestinians since the one-day peace meeting last week, and conducted a dozen incursions into the West Bank.
Israel already has ‘kill zones’ in the Gaza Strip – areas where soldiers are ordered to ‘shoot anything that moves, even if its a three-year old child.’ The new directive by Barak expands that ‘kill zone’ to any known Hamas positions. These could be extremely numerous, given that Hamas has control of the government in Gaza (after being democratically elected last year), and the majority of Palestinians in Gaza support the party.
The Israeli premier Ehud Olmert intends to visit Russia to foil a possible arms deal to Syria, according to Yediot Ahronot on Friday.
More than 100 nonaligned nations backed Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear power on Wednesday, an endorsement sought by Tehran in its standoff with the U.N. Security Council over its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
The IDF dismissed Friday evening earlier reports claiming that Air Force jets have been training in Iraq ahead of a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Israel’s defence minister has warned of his country’s readiness to act against Iran if it feels threatened.
Israel must destroy Iran’s nuclear program within the next 12 months or risk being attacked with an atomic bomb itself, the former head of the Mossad told the British Sunday Telegraph. 
A senior Iranian commander says the country is digging some ’320,000 graves’ in its bordering provinces for future slain invaders.
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