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...... The four main targets for any raid on Iran would be the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.....
Passing over Iraq would require at least tacit agreement to the raid from Washington. So far, the Obama Administration has refused to give its approval as it pursues a diplomatic solution to curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions..... Israeli newspapers reported last year that high-ranking officials, including the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have met their Saudi Arabian counterparts to discuss the Iranian issue. It was also reported that Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, met Saudi intelligence officials last year to gain assurances that Riyadh would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets violating Saudi airspace during the bombing run. Both governments have denied the reports.
1 comment:
Well in does fit in with Saudi Arabia's geo-political goals of stopping a "Shiite Crescent" from emerging that would challenge it's power.
Of course it would be an infinitely stupid move by Israel. The list of four main targets also make little sense.
Natanz is the most inspected enrichment facility in the world and the IAEA has confirmed that facility is solely used for civilian enrichment.
The Qom site is suspected of being larger than a civilian facility would need to be. That was the site that the Obama admin leaked knowing about before the third round of sanctions Sept 09 and which Iran had not told the IAEA about. But Qom is still a construction site building won't be finished until 2011.
Isfahan and Arak are both helpful for civilian or military nuclear programmes. But in short if Israel plans to bomb these 4 targets it wouldn't do any damage to a covert nuclear program.
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