Saudi Arabia Gives Israel Clear Skies to Attack
Iranian Nuclear Sites
By Hugh Tomlinson
June 12, 2010 "The Times" -- 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.
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.
The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles (2,250km) from Israel; the outer
limits of their bombers’ range, even with aerial refuelling. An open
corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the
distance. An airstrike would involve multiple waves of bombers,
possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft
attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to
strike from the southwest.
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. Military analysts say Israel has held back only
because of this failure to secure consensus from America and Arab
states. Military analysts doubt that an airstrike alone would be
sufficient to knock out the key nuclear facilities, which are heavily
fortified and deep underground or within mountains. However, if the
latest sanctions prove ineffective the pressure from the Israelis on
Washington to approve military action will intensify. Iran vowed to
continue enriching uranium after the UN Security Council imposed its
toughest sanctions yet in an effort to halt the Islamic Republic’s
nuclear programme, which Tehran claims is intended for civil energy
purposes only. President Ahmadinejad has described the UN resolution as
“a used handkerchief, which should be thrown in the dustbin”.
Israeli officials refused to comment yesterday on details for a raid on
Iran, which the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has refused to rule
out. Questioned on the option of a Saudi flight path for Israeli
bombers, Aharaon Zeevi Farkash, who headed military intelligence until
2006 and has been involved in war games simulating a strike on Iran,
said: “I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an
Iranian nuclear capacity.”
In 2007 Israel was reported to have used Turkish air space to attack a
suspected nuclear reactor being built by Iran’s main regional ally,
Syria. Although Turkey publicly protested against the “violation” of
its air space, it is thought to have turned a blind eye in what many
saw as a dry run for a strike on Iran’s far more substantial — and
better-defended — nuclear sites.
Israeli intelligence experts say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan
are at least as worried as themselves and the West about an Iranian
nuclear arsenal.Israel has sent missile-class warships and at least one
submarine capable of launching a nuclear warhead through the Suez Canal
for deployment in the Red Sea within the past year, as both a warning
to Iran and in anticipation of a possible strike. 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.
Satrio Arismunandar
Executive ProducerNews Division, Trans TV, Lantai 3
Jl. Kapten P. Tendean Kav. 12 - 14 A, Jakarta 12790
Phone: 7917-7000, 7918-4544 ext. 3542, Fax: 79184558,
79184627 http://satrioarismunandar6.blogspot.comhttp://satrioarismunandar.multiply.com Verba
volant scripta manent...(yang terucap akan lenyap, yang tertulis akan abadi...)
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