US rejected an Israeli request to attack Iran Andrew McLemore

Published: Saturday January 10, 2009





Print This Email This In an effort to sabotage Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, Israeli officials sent a secret request to the White House last year for specialized bombs to attack Iran's main nuclear complex, The New York Times reported.



President Bush deflected Israel's request and his administration expressed alarm about the idea of an Israeli jet flying over Iraq to reach Iran's only known uranium enrichment site.



Bush told the Israeli officials that he had already authorized covert actions against Iran's nuclear program and the Israelis backed off their plans. The request may have been an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to goad the White House into action before Bush left office.



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Instead [of overtly attacking Iran], Mr. Bush embraced more intensive covert operations actions aimed at Iran, the interviews show, having concluded that the sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies were failing to slow the uranium enrichment efforts. Those covert operations, and the question of whether Israel will settle for something less than a conventional attack on Iran, pose immediate and wrenching decisions for Mr. Obama.



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The new information supports the prediction from a US official that President-elect Barack Obama will face a "serious crisis" over Iran's nuclear ambitions during his first year in office.



"It seems clear that Israel will not sit by idly while Iran takes defiant steps toward becoming a nuclear power," said former US defense secretary William Perry.



Although Israel's current aggression in Gaza may be an attempt to curtail Iran's strength in the region, the editor of Newsweek argues that the real effect could be just the opposite.



"Within Iran also, the balance is shifting. The moderates are now silent. Reformist newspapers display photographs of dead Palestinian babies on their front pages. ... By crushing Gaza militarily, Israel might actually be giving Iran's mullahs the ideological issue they thrive on. That might be the political lesson of this war," wrote Fareed Zakaria.



