Israel, US and UK 'planning' attack on Iran nuclear facility

PRESSURE is building on Iran ahead of the publication next week of a report on its nuclear programme. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is apparently preparing his cabinet for the possibility of an airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities, while a report in the UK claims the Ministry of Defence is drawing up plans in case it is asked to join a putative US attack.

Ha'aretz reported yesterday that Netanyahu and his Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, have been trying to persuade the Israeli cabinet, which is currently marginally opposed to military action against Iran, to back an airstrike.

Israel has been conducting drills apparently in preparation for a long-range attack. Six different types of air force squadrons last week participated in a war game in Italy, while yesterday a new ballistic missile was tested in Israel.

The sabre-rattling has even spread to Britain, where The Guardian claims that military officials believe Tehran has now overcome the setback it suffered when Stuxnet, a computer worm generally believed to have been developed by US and Israeli agencies, infected Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant.

Although Barack Obama would be reluctant to attack Iran before next year's presidential election, the Ministry of Defence thinks that the publication on 8 November of a report on Iran's nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency may be a "game changer" that forces the US president to act.

Adding impetus to the calculations is the possibility that within a year Iran will have hidden and protected all the material it needs to complete a nuclear weapons programme.
 
A Whitehall official told the Guardian: "Beyond [12 months], we couldn't be sure our missiles could reach them. So the window is closing... We had thought this would wait until after the US election next year, but now we are not so sure.

"President Obama has a big decision to make in the coming months because he won't want to do anything just before an election."

If the MoD received a request for assistance, it would be provided - probably in the form of permission to use the British airbase on the island of Diego Garcia and the backing of Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with cruise missiles.

But there is scepticism as to whether an attack can achieve its aims.
Israeli strategic specialist, Emily Landau, told the Scotsman that military action could only delay Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"There is no real military option to stop the programme," she said. "The facilities are dispersed and there are probably facilities we don't know about."

And Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies, said talk of air strikes might be more to do with persuading the international community to tighten sanctions, which have so far proved ineffective, after the IAEA report is published next week. ·