- CAIRO (IslamOnline.net) -
Israel could launch a massive strike at Iran's nuclear facilities in autumn,
creating an explosive situation in the region with a possible fierce response
from Tehran, Arab diplomats have expected according to a leading Arabic-language
newspaper.
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- "Exploiting the November US presidential elections
and the European concerns, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could order
a strike at Iran's nuclear facilities, similar to the ones Israelis executed
in 1981 against Iraq's nuclear weapons program", the diplomats were
quoted by the London-based newspaper Al Hayat on Wednesday, August 4.
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- Iran's continued development of its nuclear program,
Israeli plans to block it and the US-European decision not to allow the
Islamic Republic to join the nuclear club "would bring in a coming
explosive autumn to the Middle East," the sources added.
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- The revelation came two days after The Sunday Times quoted
Israeli officials as saying that Israeli Air Force has completed military
preparations for a "preemptive" strike at Iran's Bushehr nuclear
facility and will attack if Russia supplies Tehran with rods for enriching
uranium.
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- The rods, currently stored at a Russian port, are expected
to be delivered late next year after a dispute over financial terms is
resolved, the British paper reported.
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- Military sources had said the raid would be carried out
by long-range F-15I jets, overflying Turkey, with simultaneous operations
by commandos on the ground.
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- Two-way Response
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- As Israeli officials have said they will not allow Iran
to acquire nuclear weapons, Iran warned of a disastrous retaliation that
will "wipe Israel off the face of earth, in the words of the public
relations head of the Revolutionary Guards, Commander Seyed Masood Jazayeri
on July 26.
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- Al Hayat, a London-based respectable newspaper, said
such a retaliation "could swing the decision-making balance in the
hardliners' favor".
-
- The daily quoted experts as saying that Iran has two
fields for response to an Israeli attack: Iraq and southern Lebanon.
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- Tehran, experts expected, could move Iraqi Shiite groups
to launch attacks against US occupation forces, already facing a hellish
situation amid a bubbling cauldron of chaos and anarchy in the war-scarred
country. They can also provide these groups with human and logistic support.
-
- The Islamic Republic could also use Southern Lebanon,
controlled by the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah which can not
stand neutral regarding an Israeli attack on Iran.
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- However, experts said it will be hard for the resistance
group to open a large-scale military showdown with Israel for "imbalance
of power and fears this could spill over to a Syrian-Israeli confrontation".
-
- The Hizbullah fighters have forced Israel to end 22 years
of occupation of southern Lebanon in May, 2000. But Israeli army still
seize the strategic Shebaa Farms there.
-
- Israel's chief of military intelligence, Major General
Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, reportedly told the Cabinet on Sunday, August 1,
that Iran has supplied hundreds of Iranian-made missiles to Hizbullah,
which can hit all of northern Israel and territory as far south as Tel
Aviv, in addition to several dozen missiles that can reach the southern
city of Beersheva.
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- Britain's Sunday Times this week quoted Israeli sources
as saying that Israel is worried that a preemptive strike against Iran
could provoke "a ferocious response," including attacks against
Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, as well as Lebanese-based rocket attacks
on northern Israel.
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- American Fears
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- The Arab diplomats said the United States, facing a hard
brewing time in Iraq, seeks to escalate international pressures on Iran
without use of force, which Washington fears could flare up the Iraq situation
in consequence.
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- It is none of US President George W. Bush's interests
to push American forces into a confrontation with Iran, the diplomats said.
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- "Bush is in the midst of presidential elections,
in which he seeks to dissipate fears of voters seeking to hold him into
account for deciding to go to war against the Iraqi regime on basis of
misleading or unreliable intelligence," said the diplomats.
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- They also expressed relief over European efforts to defuse
tension over Iran's nuclear program by encouraging Tehran to be "
flexible and transparent to avoid international isolation or a military
action".
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- "France, Britain and Germany still believe diplomatic
efforts have not been exhausted yet, and channels of international laws
should be first adopted away from military option," the diplomats
added.
-
- US diplomats have been reportedly working with European
allies to bring the Iranian problem to the United Nations Security Council
in hopes of imposing economic sanctions.
-
- A report issued earlier this month by the Council on
Foreign Relations asserted that the US should not let Israel act unilaterally
against Iran.
-
- The report, authored by former national security advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Central Intelligence Agency chief Robert
Gates, said: "Given the potential threat that Iran's acquisition of
nuclear weapons could pose, the full range of alternatives - including
military options - for confronting Tehran must be examined. Yet the use
of military force would be extremely problematic, given the dispersal of
Iran's program at sites throughout the country and their proximity to urban
centers."
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- Iran insists it only wants atomic energy. And so far,
its nuclear program is in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty.
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- Israel, India and Pakistan are the only countries with
nuclear facilities that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty,
which was initiated in 1968 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons through
inspections and sanctions.
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- It is widely known that U.S. intelligence agencies routinely
omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing
weapons of mass destruction to protect the country from any economic or
military sanctions.
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- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-08/04/article03.shtml
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- Comment
- From Non-Zionist Jew
- 8-6-4
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- Russian Sunburn Missiles are already deployed in Iran,
Syria, and in other parts of Eurasia. Russia has the advance Topol I and
II missiles that can render our anti-missile defense useless as so much
as scrap iron. Russia geographically is next door to Iran and has geographical
and political interests in having a strong Iran to counter our bullying
ally "Israel". Iran will not hesitate to retaliate not just
in kind but in a way to render our bullying ally "Israel" neutralized
for generations to come. Better tell Sharon not to force our fellow Jews
to commit national suicide.
-
- Shalom
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