The Sunday Times: US backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran

      The Sunday Times quoted a senior Pentagon official as saying that President George W. Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down. The official told the London-based newspaper that despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread skepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties.“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official told The Times. But, according to the report, Israel has also been told that it can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support. The Times report added that "Nor is it certain that Bush’s amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility. Tehran’s test launches of medium-range ballistic missiles last week were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US targets." “It’s really all down to the Israelis,” the Pentagon official as saying. “This administration will not attack Iran. This has already been decided. But the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn’t believe that anything but force will deter Iran.” (10,54)