[NYTr] Israel to "brief" [or instruct?] Bush on options for Iran strike

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Times of Lndon - Jan 6, 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137521.ece


Israel to brief George Bush on options for Iran strike

by Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv

ISRAELI security officials are to brief President George W Bush on
their latest intelligence about Irans nuclear programme - and how it
could be destroyed - when he begins a tour of the Middle East in
Jerusalem this week.

Ehud Barak, the defence minister, is said to want to convince him that 
an Israeli military strike against uranium enrichment facilities in
Iran would be feasible if diplomatic efforts failed to halt nuclear 
operations. A range of military options has been prepared.

Last month it was revealed that the US National Intelligence Estimate 
report, drawing together information from 16 agencies, had concluded 
that Iran stopped a secret nuclear weapon programme in 2003.

Israeli intelligence is understood to agree that the project was halted 
around the time of Americas invasion of Iraq, but has rock solid 
information that it has since started up again.

While security officials are reluctant to reveal all their
intelligence, fearing that leaks could jeopardise the element of
surprise in any future attack, they are expected to present the
president with fresh details of Irans enrichment of uranium - which
could be used for civil or military purposes - and the development of
missiles that could carry nuclear warheads.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot this
weekend, Bush argued that in spite of the US intelligence assessment,
Iran still posed a threat.

I read the intelligence report carefully, Bush said. In essence, what 
the report said was that Iran had a secret plan to develop nuclear
weapons.

Im saying that a state which adopted a nontransparent policy and had a 
secret plan for developing nuclear weapons could easily develop an 
alternative plan for the same purpose. So to conclude from the 
intelligence report that there is no Iranian plan to develop nuclear 
weapons will be only a partial truth.

Israeli security officials believe the only way to prevent uranium 
enrichment to military grade is to destroy Iranian installations. Many 
Israelis are eager to know whether America would give their country the 
green light to attack, as it did last September when Israel struck a 
mysterious nuclear site in Syria.

Bush refused to be drawn when asked whether he would support an Israeli 
attack. My message to all countries in the region is that we are able 
to solve the problem in a diplomatic way, he said, but all options are 
on the table.