Israel won’t rule out strike on Iran nuclear sites

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is not ruling out military
action against arch-foe Iran’s nuclear programme but for now
prefers to let foreign diplomatic pressure on Tehran run its
course, a senior Israeli official said on Sunday.

Amos Gilad, chief of strategic and security planning in the
Defense Ministry, spoke after Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper
said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had put armed forces
on standby for a March strike on Iranian uranium enrichment
sites.

Gilad denied such a plan was in place. But he said Israel
– which bombed the main Iraqi atomic reactor at Osiraq in
1981, driving Saddam Hussein’s quest for the bomb underground
– could eventually consider a similar military option against
Iran.

“It would not be correct for a country that faces such a
threat to deny that it would ever consider another option
(other than diplomacy),” Gilad told Israel Radio. “One cannot
say a priori that any option for the future is being ruled out.

“But presented with the specific planning, as laid out so
artfully in this article — this, I can say, is not correct.”

Iran, the world’s fourth-biggest oil producer, says its
nuclear programme is for energy needs only. It has vowed to
retaliate for any attack by Israel, which is believed to have
the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal.

Israeli officials have endorsed efforts by the United
States and European Union to curb Iranian uranium enrichment —
a key step for creating nuclear weapons. But Israel has warned
that, by March, Iran will have the know-how to build the bomb
alone.

Tensions between Iran and Israel escalated after Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called in October for the Jewish
state to be “wiped off the map.” Iran later said the remarks,
which drew global censure, did not constitute a threat.

Some Israeli political analysts have noted the anti-Iran
rhetoric rising in the lead-up to general elections on March
28.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the front-runner to lead the right-wing
Likud Party against Sharon’s more centrist Kadima, earlier this
month called for a “bold” Osiraq-like operation against Iran.

Sharon has steered clear of directly proposing a strike,
but when asked whether such an option — either by Israel or a
foreign power — were feasible, said “the capability exists.”

But independent analysts note that, unlike with Osiraq,
Iran’s nuclear sites are numerous, dispersed, and well-defended
– a major challenge for Israel should it attack unilaterally.

“I think there is an understanding of the limitations of
our air power against Iran,” defense expert Reuven Pedatzur
told Army Radio. “Iran could well end up getting nuclear
weapons, and Israel will have to deal with that new reality.”