Israel planned Iran strike during unrest: Report

Press TV

Israel reportedly had plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities during the post-vote turmoil in the country.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility some 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran.

As Iran was grappling with the post-election unrest, Israel was reportedly preparing to strike the country’s nuclear facilities, a US diplomatic source says.

According to the US diplomat who is based in Jerusalem (al Quds), Israel asked the US administration for a green light to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and its other vital structures in the aftermath of the country’s post-election turmoil.

The call for the military strike came after the official announcement of the poll result in Iran prompted widespread protests across the country as opposition supporters took to the streets to protest “fraud” in the June 12 election.

Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida cited the diplomatic source as saying that the request was put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, bearing President Shimon Peres’s signature as well.

The administration of President Barack Obama, however, did not take any notice of the Israeli request and consequently the operation was called off.

Tel Aviv put forward the request as it accuses Tehran — a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — of pursuing a nuclear program with military objectives and argues that the use of military force is a legitimate option in halting Iran’s nuclear progress.

Iran denies the Israeli claim, insisting that its nuclear enrichment program is solely directed at the civilian applications of the technology.

The US intelligence community, which issued a new assessment on Iran’s nuclear activities on Friday, believes that a political decision is yet to be made in Iran for building a nuclear bomb.

The review by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research also contends that despite Iran’s progress toward producing enriched uranium, Tehran will not be technically capable of producing weapons-grade material before 2013.

Obama Gives Israel Green Light To Nuke Iran

By Haaretz Service

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the Obama administration would not stand in Israel’s way should the latter chooses to take military action to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat.

White House officials said that the vice president’s remarks demonstrated only U.S. allowance of Israeli sovereignty, and not a change in policy on the part of the Obama administration.

Biden told ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos that Israel has the right to determine its own course of action with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat, regardless of what the Obama administration chooses to do, .

When asked whether the Obama administration would restrain Israeli military action against Iran, Biden responded:

“Israel can determine for itself – it’s a sovereign nation – what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

Stephanaopoulos posed the question three times, and each time Biden repeated that Israel was free to choose its actions. “If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice.”

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Biden’s remarks did not signaling any change of approach on Iran or Israel.

“The vice president refused to engage hypotheticals, and he made clear that our policy has not changed,” Vietor said. “Our friends and allies, including Israel, know that the president believes that now is the time to explore direct diplomatic options.”

During the interview, Biden hinted that President Barack Obama was looking to take a harder line toward Iran over the latter’s contentious nuclear program.

He said that Obama’s offer for dialogue with Tehran remained on the table, but rejected the notion that the U.S. would make concessions for such negotiation to take place.

“The ball’s in their court,” Biden said. “If they choose to meet with the P-5 under the conditions the P-5 has laid out, it means they begin to change course. And it means that the protestors probably had some impact on the behavior of an administration that they don’t like at all.”

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday, when asked about Biden’s comments, that the U.S. position on Iran and a military strike involves a political decision.

“I have been, for some time, concerned about any strike on Iran. I worry about it being very destabilizing, not just in and of itself but unintended consequences of a strike like that,” Mullen said on CBS’ Face the Nation.

“At the same time, I’m one that thinks Iran should not have nuclear weapons. I think that is very destabilizing,” he said.

As Israel gears up for war with Iran, US divide appears

Admiral Mike Mullen says any military strike against Iran would be “very destabilizing.”

As Israel continues its efforts to portray Iran as a regime hell-bent on a nuclear war, top officials in the White House and the US military express contradictory stances on a potential Israeli attack on Iran.
The top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, warned on Sunday that any military strike against Iran would have “unintended consequences”.
Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News on Sunday that any attack against Iran would be “very destabilizing.”
“I’ve been one who has been concerned about a strike on Iran for some time, because it could be very destabilizing, and it is the unintended consequences of that which aren’t predictable,” he was quoted by AFP as saying.
Meanwhile in the White House, US Vice President Joe Biden said that the US would not stop Israel if it launches an attack against Iran.
The US “cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do,” Biden said, the Associated Press reported.
Israel, the possessor of the sole nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons and drawing up plans to attack the regime.
Iran denies the charges and says under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the country is a signatory of; it is entitled to conduct a nuclear program for civilian purposes.
The US, Israel’s staunchest ally, has for sometime denied Israel a green light to carry out an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Biden, however, told ABC that Israel is able to determine “what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”