Australia: US may join Israel in strikes against Iran

The Sydney Morning Herald

US could join Israel to strike Iran over nuclear program
John Walcott

Obama administration officials are stepping up warnings that the US could join Israel in attacking Iran if the Islamic Republic does not dispel concerns that its nuclear research program is aimed at producing weapons.

Just days before the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is scheduled to arrive in Washington, the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Norton Schwartz, said the Joint Chiefs of Staff have prepared military options to strike Iranian nuclear sites in the event of a conflict.

''What we can do, you wouldn't want to be in the area,'' he said.

Pentagon officials said military options being prepared start with providing aerial refuelling for Israeli planes and also include attacking the pillars of the clerical regime, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Quds Force.

Iran's leaders have called for a high turnout in today's parliamentary election - the first since a disputed vote in 2009 sparked mass protests - to show solidarity in the face of international sanctions.

The ballot ''will be a slap in the face of enemies of the nation,'' the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, said on his website, urging voters to ''stand tall and show your determination'' by taking part.

Absent from today's vote is the opposition that challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election, then took to the streets alleging that his victory was rigged. Dozens of people were killed and thousands arrested in the ensuing crackdown by security forces.

The two leaders of that so-called Green movement have been under house arrest for more than a year.

Unnamed US officials told The Washington Post that US military planners are increasingly confident that sustained attacks with the air force's 13,600-kilogram ''bunker-buster'' bombs could put Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Fordo out of commission.

The latest American warnings of possible military action against Iran follow meetings between Israeli and Obama administration officials that failed to resolve differences over when an attack would become necessary.

Obama administration officials have suggested the trigger for military action should be a decision by Ayatollah Khamenei to enrich uranium beyond a current level of 20 per cent that supports nuclear power generation to a weapons-grade level of 85 or 90 per cent.

Israeli officials described Iran's nuclear program as a three-legged stool that also includes efforts in different locations to develop a missile warhead.

While Israeli officials told the Americans that their ability to strike Iran is greater than most people recognise, Iran's enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordo would be extremely difficult for the Israeli Air Force to destroy with its largest weapon, the 2270-kilogram GBU-28.

However, Iran's warhead and weaponisation facilities at Parchin and Bidganeh and elsewhere are more vulnerable, at least for now. Recent US intelligence concluded that if Iran can get its centrifuges to produce weapons-grade uranium and assemble the 15-20 kilograms needed for a weapon, a delivery system and other components, it could build a weapon in two months.

Bloomberg

http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-could-join-israel-to-strike-iran-over-nuclear-program-20120301-1u5zu.html