Published: 07/11/2008 JTA
Israel is using Iraqi air space and U.S. bases in Iraq to prepare for a strike against Iran, according to an Iraqi news report.
The report, which was cited by Iranian media, quoted sources in the Iraqi defense ministry.
The sources reportedly said that using U.S. bases in Iraq would enable Israeli planes to reach Iranian targets within minutes.
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Iraq: Israeli jets using US bases, says ministry source
Baghdad, 11 July (AKI) -
Israeli Air Force jets have been flying over Jordanian airspace and landing in Iraq for over a month, according to reports quoting Iraqi government sources.
Iran's state-funded Press TV also reported the claim, immediately fuelling speculation about a potential strike by Israel against Iran's nuclear facilities.
According to Press TV, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence told Iraqi news network, Nahrainnet, that suspected Israeli warplanes had landed at the al-Assad American airbase near Haditha, in western Anbar province, as well as a base in Nassiriya in the country's south.
Iran's Press TV also reported that the US had boosted security arrangements around the bases allegedly used by Israel.
According to retired Iraqi army officials, fighter jets have been entering Iraqi airspace from Jordan.
Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1994.
Sources also claimed that if Israeli warplanes were to carry out an attack against Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr, it would take them five minutes to reach it from Iraq.
In June, 100 Israeli warplanes carried out a drill over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, as a rehearsal for a possible attack on Iran.
During that exercise, Israeli Air Force helicopters and refuelling aircraft reportedly flew around 1,500 kilometres from Israel - roughly the distance between Israel and Iran's primary uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.
On Thursday, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that his country was ready to act against Iran if threatened.
"Israel is the strongest country in the region and has proved in the past that it won't hesitate to act when its vital security interests are at stake," said Barak speaking in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Those pesky Jews. The next thing you know they'll be flying out of Mecca, or Riyahd. But that report has a ring of truth to it. Mid-East Map Maybe it's going to happen. Stock up on gas, oil folks.
ReplyDeleteBush would have to be considered insane, if this report were accurate.
ReplyDeleteJuly 11 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose more than $4 to a record on concerns that Israel may be preparing to attack Iran, while a strike in Brazil and renewed militant activity in Nigeria threaten to cut supplies.
ReplyDeleteOil rallied to a record high of $145.98 a barrel after the Jerusalem Post said Israeli war planes practiced over Iraq, adding to speculation the country is preparing to attack Iran.
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ReplyDeleteNone of those countries want a nuclear armed Iran. Maybe all this oil price rise is just that, war jitters, traders being savvy folks, having little to do with supply and demand. Habu, who was batting about zero percent on predictions, was calling for a strike before the elections, or maybe it was after the elections, but before the new president gets in. Since he seems to have dropped off the radar screen at all the blogs, maybe he has headed out to his redoubt in Montana. Kucinich will put an end to all this by impeaching Bush.
ReplyDeleteTrying to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of people that believe the Mahdi is coming out of the well seems rational enough, to me. Whether it's practicable and can be done is another issue.
ReplyDeleteMentally ill people are not allowed to have explosives in the United States for instance. A defensible policy if you ask me.
"We want to tell the world that those who conduct their foreign policy by using the language of threat against Iran have to know that our finger is always on the trigger and we have hundreds and even thousands of missiles ready to be fired against predetermined targets," Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard ground forces, said on state TV.
ReplyDeleteItchy Finger
Meanwhile, Olmert remains 'convinced of his own innocence' while the police Accuse Him Of Fraud
ReplyDeleteIt seems as hard to find an honest politician in Israel as in the USA.
There must be a word when some are considered insane by the deranged.
ReplyDeleteBDS comes closest I guess. Good news, finally. Get 'er done.
Some are deranged, others have just been down range.
ReplyDeleteIf the United States needs Iran bombed, it can do it.
To hide behind Israeli skirts and try to claim deniability, insanity.
We'd be up to it to our eyeballs, and would be blamed by those who want to blame us anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe've provided them the planes, the bunker busting bombs, the anti-missile defense, the satellite photos, or most of them, and other things I can't think of. Might as well put the Stars and Stripes on the wings, for all the deniability we'll get. Plus, the air space of Iraq, and maybe the airfields too.
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ReplyDeleteIf the United States needs Iran bombed, it can do it.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, if assets and arsenal were only considerations. Political will to do the unavoidable seems in short supply in Washington, not necessarily just in the WH. Anyhow, I'm not going to the bunker until the attack is carried by Fox News.
To hide behind Israeli skirts and try to claim deniability, insanity.
Staging from US bases with overflight permissions, etc. are hardly the stuff of claimed deniability. If/when it happens, it won't be a case for deniability, or hiding behind Israeli skirts. Actually, it appears it's already happening in preliminary stages. I'll watch for evidence it's being denied.
More likely, a case will be presented that a joint venture was to our mutual advantage, blah, blah, blah. The validity of that case will be debated until hell freezes over, but in the meantime an imminent threat will have been neutralized (actually maybe more than one threat, if the Iranian navy around the straits is wiped out too).
To which it will be said the action only stirred up a hornets' nest. To which I'll probably reply, "rinse and repeat."