Israel and Iran will go to war

SHUNEH, Jordan: Israel's alleged atomic arsenal poses "the real danger" in the Middle East and not Iran's nuclear programme, Arab League chief Amr Musa said on Sunday.

"The real danger as far as nuclear military programmes are concerned is posed by Israel and not Iran," Musa said during a panel discussion on the future of Middle East peacemaking at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.

"We don't see Iran as the main issue. The vast majority of Arabs does not see Iran as the main issue. Why should we engage with Iran and with Israel?"

"However, we don't need another nuclear programme in the Middle East," the Arab League chief said.

Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, his Palestinian counterpart Salam Fayyad, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Russian special envoy to the Middle East Alexander Sultanov took part in the discussion on the shores of the Dead Sea.

Israel itself is widely considered to be the Middle East's sole nuclear armed power but it has never confirmed or denied having an atomic arsenal and refuses to submit to international inspections.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes and that it has the right to technology already in the hands of many other nations.

LONDON: Israel's military is preparing so it could launch major aerial attacks on Iranian nuclear sites if ordered to by the new government, a British newspaper said Saturday, quoting Israeli defence and intelligence sources.

"Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light, they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours," an unnamed senior defence official told The Times.

"They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words."

Among preparatory steps being taken are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack, the paper said.

Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East's sole nuclear armed power, suspects the Islamic Republic of using the programme to develop atomic weapons, a charge that Tehran has repeatedly denied.

The Jewish state considers Tehran to be its arch-enemy because of repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took power on April 1 at the helm of a right-wing government, has repeatedly made clear that his priority is confronting Iran.

In his inaugural address, Netanyahu said the biggest threat Israel faced was the possibility of "a radical regime armed with nuclear weapons" -- an apparent reference to Iran.

Israeli officials quoted by The Times said more than a dozen targets could be envisaged, including Tehran's main nuclear sites at Natanz, Isfahan and Arak.

"We would not make the threat without the force to back it," an official from Israel's intelligence community said.

"There has been a recent move, a number of on-the-ground preparations, that indicate Israel's willingness to act," the official said.

He added it was unlikely Israel would strike without at least tacit approval from the US.

US President Barack Obama has taken a more conciliatory tone to Iran than predecessor George W. Bush, calling on the Islamic republic to "unclench" its fist soon after taking office in January.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Obama administration could drop a long-held US insistence that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment in the early stages of any negotiations on the issue.

One analyst, Ephraim Kam of the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, told The Times he thought it unlikely the US would approve an attack.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Iran's recently diclosed second uranium enrichment plant is "immune" to conventional bombing.

"The new site near Qom is meant for enrichment. What was revealed by the Iranians had been built over years and is located in bunkers that cannot be destroyed through a conventional attack," Barak told parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.

Iran notified the UN nuclear watchdog in September that it was building a second enrichment plant near the central shrine city of Qom, after Washington accused it of covertly evading its notification responsibilities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Confirmation of the construction work drew criticism not only from Western governments but also from the United Nations.

Enriched uranium can make the fuel for nuclear power plants but in highly extended form can also produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

Along with Western governments, Israel suspects Iran of seeking to develop a weapons capability under the guise of a civil nuclear programme, an accusation Tehran denies.

Along with its US ally, Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, has refused to rule out a resort to military action to prevent Iran developing a bomb.

Barak said he feared Iran could develop a weapon by 2011.

"I believe that by early 2010 Iran will hold threshold technology (for building a bomb). That means that if it wanted, it could develop nuclear weapons within a year from obtaining threshold technology," a senior official quoted him as telling the parliamentary committee.