Yahoo! News - Israel Plans to Hit Iran Nuke Plant-Sunday Times
I wonder if the White House has shifted tactics because they were told the Israelis will do the dirty work for them. That way they can claim they supported "diplomacy", knowing all the while that Iran wouldn't budge, and that Israeli would use force. This could explain the sudden 180.
LONDON (Reuters) - Israel has drawn up plans for a combined air and ground attack on Iranian nuclear installations if diplomacy fails to halt Tehran's atomic program, London's Sunday Times said.
The newspaper said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his inner cabinet had given "initial authorization" for a unilateral attack on Iran at a private meeting last month.
U.S. officials have indicated they would not stand in Israel's way if international diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclear projects fail, the paper said.
"If all efforts to persuade Iran to drop its plans to produce nuclear weapons should fail, the U.S. administration will authorize Israel to attack," the paper quoted an Israeli security source as saying.
Do they need our permission? Meanwhile, the Iranians stay defiant, and accuse the US of using some top-notch chemicals.
Washington is "hallucinating" if it thinks Iran will scrap its nuclear fuel production plans in return for economic incentives, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Sunday.
The United States offered the encouragements in a bid to boost the European Union which is negotiating with Tehran to try to persuade it to give up sensitive nuclear activities.
"U.S. officials are either unaware of the substance of the talks or (they are) hallucinating," Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team with the European Union, told the official IRNA news agency.
Washington offered on Friday to allow Iran to begin talks on joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) and consider letting it buy civilian airline parts if it ceased all activities that could produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons.
But Iran dismissed the incentives as insignificant.
Guess they didn't want our shiny beads and trinkets and a seat at the tea party. Gee, I wonder why. Don't they trust us?