Could be used as staging ground for strikes against Iran
TEL AVIV — Israeli personnel in recent days were in Saudi Arabia to inspect bases that could be used as a staging ground to launch attacks against Iran, according to informed Egyptian intelligence officials.
The officials said Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and other Arab and Persian Gulf countries have been discussing the next steps toward possible strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
The officials said the U.S. passed strong messages to Israel and the Saudis that the Americans control radar capabilities over the skies near Iran and that no strike should be launched without permission from the Obama administration.
It was unclear whether the purported visit to Saudi Arabia by Israeli military and intelligence officials signals any real preparation for a strike or if the trip was meant to keep pressure on the West amid Israeli fears about the current deal with Tehran.
The trip came prior to the announcement today of the deal with Western powers that aims to halt key parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
At a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed what he called a “bad” and “dangerous” deal, while affirming that Israel will not allow Iran to go nuclear.
“”Israel is not obligated by this agreement,” Netanyahu said. “I want to make clear we will not allow Iran to obtain military nuclear capability.”
“Today the world became a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world made a significant step in obtaining the most dangerous weapons in the world,” he said.
The deal reportedly halts the installation of new centrifuges, but allows Iran to keep current centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
The agreement caps the amount and type of enriched uranium Iran can produce and opens many nuclear sites up to daily inspections. However, Israel is warning that even the low-grade uranium allowed in the agreement can be used to eventually assemble a nuclear weapons capability.
As part of the deal, Iran agreed to halt work on key components of its Arak heavy-water reactor that could be used to produce plutonium, but the country doesn’t have to dismantle the reactor.
In response, Iran gets sanctions relief, including the freeing of $7 billion or more in frozen assets.
Hours after deal was signed, President Hassan Rouhani said the agreement recognizes Tehran’s “rights” to maintain an atomic program.
– See more at: http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2013/11/24/officals-israelis-in-secret-trip-to-inspect-saudi-bases-could-be-used-as-staging-ground-for-strikes-against-iran/#sthash.dAl8RV3o.dpuf
WND is not reliable but more to the sensational type of writing. I would not call it reporting.
Even more significant are threats from Saudi Arabia, backed by the other oil-rich Sun’a Gulf monarchies, that they too will militarily attack Iran in order to stop the Iranians from fabricating and deploying nuclear weapons. If in fact Israeli intelligence and military planners have been meeting with the Saudis, one must assume they intend to coordinate their military efforts.
Interesting news is also coming out of Washington, where US Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York), one of the key liberal stalwarts in the Senate, has warned Obama that his apparently intended disastrous sellout in favor of Iran will backfire in the US Congress, and that the Senate and House of Representatives will vote in even stronger sanctions against Iran, with significant support of both main political parties.
Even a previously-inexperienced affirmative action candidate such as Barack Hussein Obama Jr should have been expected to bring to the White House a much higher grade of common sense in dealing with important policy issues than he has exercised in almost five years of power. Instead the most notable features of his legacy will be that he has all but destroyed both the health care delivery system of the United States and the system of US alliances throughout the Sun’a Muslim Arab world in the heart of the Middle East.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ sabashimon:
Who leaked the purported information and for whose gain did the ultra secret information leaked? In Israel there is a massive Censor Office who must approve every sensitive item published. Any questions? Such purported association would have never been leaked if not under orders.
Really Yamit, did you think that the Saudi’s would admit to such a thing publicly? Obviously, as Laura said, they were going to deny it.
From here on out, it’s Barack Neville Obama.
Personally I believe it, and while Wahhabist Saudi Arabia inherently cannot ever be “friends” with the Jewish State, they can take the short-term pragmatic approach of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
Their long-term world view is very much different of course, but in the meantime, just like with evangelical Christians, we’ll take our “friends” where and when we can.
@ yamit82:
It’s expected they would make a public denial.
THERE IS NO MILITARY OPTION FOR ISRAEL> Fear of Obama is greater than fear of Iran for BB and Most of the heads in our Military and Security services.
Saudi Arabia rules out contact with Israel on Iran
The Saudi spokesman said the report was “completely unfounded”.
RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabia on Monday ruled out any contact with Israel, with which it has no diplomatic ties, after a British newspaper reported that the two countries could coordinate efforts against Iran.
The kingdom, which is Iran s chief regional rival, “has no relations or contacts with Israel of any kind or at any level,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, quoted by state news agency SPA.
Under the headline “Two old foes unite against Tehran,” Britain s Sunday Times newspaper said Israel and Saudi Arabia were working together on “contingency plans for a possible attack on Iran if its nuclear programme is not significantly curbed.”
“As part of the growing cooperation, Riyadh is understood already to have given the go-ahead for Israeli planes to use its airspace in the event of an attack on Iran,” it said.
The Saudi spokesman said the report was “completely unfounded”.
Mainly Sunni Saudi has been locked in a decades-long rivalry with Shiite-dominated Iran, while Israel suspects Tehran is covertly pursuing a nuclear weapons programme and has not ruled out the use of military force.
Saudi Arabia has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
In 2002, the kingdom presented a peace initiative which offers Israel full diplomatic recognition from all Arab states in exchange for the return of occupied Arab lands.