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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two-way Response
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
American Fears
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.
It is none of US President George W. Bush's
interests to push American forces into a confrontation with Iran, the
diplomats said.
"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.
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".
"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."
Iran insists it only wants atomic energy. And
so far, its nuclear program is in compliance with the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.
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.
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.
