Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.
In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.
“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” said a US defence source in the area. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.”
Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing,” said one.
Yeah! When bombs haven’t done the job, more bombs surely will.
Nice “mini focus” on Middle East politics this week. With everyone hating everyone else over there, its interesting they can still rank order their disputes.
Anybody that criticizes any country over there for what they do is basically just background noise.
And no, I won’t think of the kiddies. Little snakes grow up to be big snakes.
We give Israel billions. This would be ROI…
That’s why we’re over there, to protect the Kingdom from Al Qaeda. Irans nuclear program is so spread out and fortified, I doubt you can take it out without a prolonged air campaign. I don’t think the IAF has the assets to do this without tactical nukes. I read a proposal to use a few bunker busters and guide a wired low yield device in the hole. I can’t imagine Israel initiating a nuclear attack unless they were sure an attack on them was imminent. The Russians would be pretty pissed about WMD close to their border.
Let me hone #2–people that criticize Israel’s use of force against terrorists only encourage the terrorists to continue. In essence, a continuation of unrealistic expectations.
The Palestinians, as cannon fodder for their Arab Brothers, have lost 5-6 Wars in a row and are tweaking the nose of the only power in the area with nukes.
How much sense does it make to encourage the Palestinians to continue their conflict rather than figure something else out? I say live in peace and wait for Israel to falter big time at some point in the future to raise these old hatreds. Doing it now is insane as is the rooting on the sidelines to do so.
that great so that there will be no more casualty happen and must be stop..
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah… Psyop attempt #987321. The nth time we hear of a pending attack. Those Iranians must be quaking in their freaking boots. Not. They’ve heard the “Boy who cried wolf” story, too.
A continuing, serious debt crisis in Europe that has not been fixed and cannot be fixed without great pain, China’s exports to drop when European demand drops from the deeper recession they’ll bring on via the necessary austerity measures, China beginning (likely too late) to deal with _their_ absolutely insane real estate boom and the phony, borrowed $3 TRILLION pumped “recovery” in the US already showing clear signs of ending. Yeah, the US is going to let Israel start a war in the Middle East. “This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department” means “yeah, we’ll let you pull psyop #987321,” not “you have a green light for an attack.”
Winston–or it could be just like what it appears to be: runup to war.
silly to think it could only be one thing. I assume you are just discussing ONE of what you know to be 5-6 different likely scenarios.
Beyond that: RAISE YOUR HANDS—how many people here think it would be unreasonable for Israel to think Iran could gain several nukes and not use them on Israel? Do not include me.
No.
LDA–I apologize. Double negatives can be difficult to wade thru, triple are impossible. but the point is made, whether it can be understood or not.
Thank you, whatever you meant. (smile)
If it wasn’t for the oil would any one care what goes on in the mid-east? I say frak everyone and let Allah {snort} sort it out.
#11 bobbo
I was answering the question “Are Iranian Nuke Plants About To Be Bombed?”.
P.S. I think it is reasonable for Israel to think Iran might use nukes on them. I do not think they would (under current circumstances) but that’s easy(ish, I would hate to be wrong) for me to say.
LDA–the Germans were disbelieved when they said they were going to destroy the Jews. The Jews say “Never Again.”
Now the Iranians are saying the want to Nuke Israel.
Tell me why the Jews should not believe them whether or not the Iranians actually would?
How about this scenario.
Iran wants Israel to bomb their nuclear facilities (with low yield nukes, even better). Makes them a martyr in the eyes of many, and letting them ask forgiveness for retaliating with anything missed. Say dirty bombs or chemical. They get their cake and eat it too. And if Saudi Arabia can be shown as complicit in allowing Israeli jets thru their airspace, then the Saudi leaders are diminished in the Arab world.
Shame the ONLY country over there KNOWN to actually have nukes (and who WON’T disclose the numbers) are the main aggressors.
It should be THEM which sanctions are imposed upon till they can give back the land that they stole from the Palestinians and openly let weapons inspectors in.
Face it, if it weren’t for the unconditional support of the US to an aggressive little bunch of hypocritical crybabies there’d be very little reason for anyone in that region to hate the west.
So how many stories is that now that you’ve posted about a coming war with Iran? Goes back at least 5 years.
#16–zybitch==hah, hah. Who’s crying?
It is really good to see Jews and Arabs working together.
Iran has already dismissed the new UN sanctions and they will inevitably cross a line where retaliation will either have to be delivered or we say never mind and let them do what they want. Seems to me they have time and again threatened to take out Israel so it makes good sense for the Saudis and the US to let Israel take the lead. The targets are pretty far from population centers so there shouldn’t be too much collateral damage. I’d hope that none of the powers involved would authorize tactical nukes. On the other hand, maybe a mini-nuclear winter would help solve the global “warming” problem.
I don’t know if an attack is imminent but I can tell you, I wouldn’t take any bets that the plans are not ready for an attack on Iran. The big question is: will it lead to a ground war? The US simply cannot fight on three fronts right now. Of course, Uncle O has promised to start a draw down of soldiers in Iraq this summer. SO, probably no war with Iran until the fall…
Today on Book Tv at 5PM PST==Andrew McCarthy: Grand Jihad about extreme Islamist Ideology, the US Gove, and liberals. Could be fun. A couple of other subjects of interest to follow.
TV.
#6 Hamas and Hasbullah will lay their weapons or at least stop their efforts to kill every Jew in the Jewish state when the last Jew in what was once Israel is dead. That’s what they say.
If you think you have some other solution they will accept you are claiming to be smarter than anybody else who has ever worked on the problem so cough it Genius and lets see if it flies.
We just might be missing the true intentions of Iran here.
Iran may not want to destroy Israel, at least not first. Iran wants to take over all of the middle east and much of Asia, and attacking Israel first could complicate things.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100515/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel
So why are the Arab states (except Syria) quietly helping Israel? Because Israel is a problem they can deal with, while Iran is not.
Therefore, oddly enough, Israel has become the ARAB PROTECTORATE IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
Israel will bomb Iran if it is attacked, and don’t you bet there is a secret agreement with Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to help there as well, all the nuclear free zone nonsense notwithstanding.
What would be this secret agreement. I speculate it would be something like this, “You Arabs can yell, scream, and propagandize all you want, but as long as you don’t actually DO anything and we got your back with Iran.”
#21–do-ill. Your befuddlement continues as usual. I support Israel no matter what they do, not because I support Israel no matter what they do, but because that is the way the cookie crumbles.
If you search these threads this past week, you will see my position is I wonder if the Israeli’s actually are causing themselves more grief than help by not being tougher on their enemies.
So, you confuse my position in these matters: real politik, nor morality and tears.
Try again.
Ah Yea–up to your MO==providing actual information? Well Done.
Yes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Does get a bit confusing when there are so many enemies?
But Real Politik: religion takes a hind seat when countries want to expand their borders/influence. Israel continues on its admirable way by “basically” (sic” just wanting to be left alone. For all you raving Anti-Zionists, put this reality in context and compare Israeli’s stated goals and actions to those of Iran.
Silly Hoomans.
Bobbo, again exactly right, and thank you! To me it is obvious the Iranian clerics are hiding their true despotic intentions behind religious robes. An easy and effective way to garner the support of the puppet masses.
Facilities to do the work needed to make nuclear weapons are kind of obvious. They can be taken out however the Russians are selling Tehran missile batteries to prevent that. Once Tehran has enough refined product to make a bomb they only need to make more material in order to increase their bomb inventory so there is a time limit here.
I can see the House of Saud very reluctantly going for this. Tehran is already paying for the forces causing them problems on their southern border. Call it war by proxy because it is.
If Tehran gets the bomb so will Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and maybe a few other nations in the region and I wouldn’t bet three cents the local nuts wouldn’t use them on each other, us or who ever.
Of course no Muslim in their right mind would hit Mecca with a Nuke because that really would cause an awful lot of Mullahs to preach Jihad against them.
Of course Tehran has threatened to bomb Jerusalem and that is also a sacred city so…
#14 bobbo
I am under the impression that the Iranian Ayatollah puppet said something like ‘the regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish’, not ‘Nuke Israel’ (and therefore Palestine and therefore Iran in response). They say they do not intend to produce nuclear weapons so what would they nuke Israel with?
“Tell me why the Jews should not believe them…”, why should Israel believe them regardless of what they say? I wouldn’t, would you?
It doesn’t matter what they say. If you wanted to stop Iran’s nuclear program it is too late for Israel to do that now (as far as I am aware). If Israel (and it’s allies) think Iran will attack it with nuclear weapons when/if it gets them clearly they would have no option but to strike first but wouldn’t that make a retaliatory strike inevitable (assuming you were unable to destroy their nuclear program)?
Some Jewish people were correct to see the Nazi regime as a direct threat (and were capable of escaping), more did not (or couldn’t do anything about it) and apparently most Germans didn’t either. However, it does not necessarily follow that Iran could or would nuke Israel, Germany committed it’s genocide (mostly) in secret and only where they had direct control, attacking Israel with nukes would be suicide, which obviously does not completely rule it out, but from what I have seen, suicide seems to be glorious for the masses not Ayatollahs and despots (Saddam in a hole).
If Israel thinks Iran is going to attack, they must act, but Iran does not have a history of offensive state military aggression/invasion (I am not disputing their clandestine assistance to others), and no-one, except America who knew there was no retaliatory capability, has used nuclear weapons. I do not want Israel to be the second aggressor (and likely third victim), and that is the only way they could hope to defeat Iran without direct military assistance.
Do you think Iran would nuke Israel? Should Israel attack Iran? Should we help attack Iran? What would the consequences be?
P.S. If Israel cannot stop Iran from nuking it, my advise would be a swift retreat from the area by all sane Israelis, Palestinians and anyone else in range of the fallout (and Iran and wherever else thermonuclear war breaks out).
P.P.S. What a f’ed up discussion.
deowll–beyond stating the obvious, what do you think?
Whats “better” for the world, for the Middle East, or your religion or country of choice? A nuked-up Middle East, or Israel taking out anyone else that develops said weapon?
Take a position. Don’t qb on us.
LDA–excellent addition. I draw a closer connection between Iran doing all they can to build a Nuke and whatever statements they have made regarding the end of Israel however it gets phrased.
So, you make a very weak argument but follow it up with very insightful/realistic sequalia until your concluding thought.
So once again, excellent “crucible of reality:” WHAT WOULD YOU DO? and your advice to a current nuclear power with proven military superiority against all foes, when confronted by a military disaster attempting an end run with 1-2 nukes is to run away?
Did you ever get to buy lunch in the third grade?
What would I do to stop Iran?
Stop whacking at the branches and go for the root.
The branches = Iran.
The Root = China and to a much lesser extent, Russia.
China is the world’s #1 sponsor of Terrorism. Without China’s support, there would be no North Korea, no radical Iran (and hence no Hezbollah or Hamas).
Hit China where it counts, in it’s pocketbook. Levy a 20% to 40% tariff on everything China imports until they stop domestic terrorism against the US (through their currency manipulation), and proxy foreign terrorism.
Money talks. China would economically collapse if we pressed a tariff against them. They would buckle and give in before that happens.
It could be painful to the US in the short term, but long term would build a safer international community and a more prosperous US.
Bold Move Ah Yea. Food for thought, and I’m not talking noodles.