Iran vs Israel

The nuclear program of Iran with its potential to develop nuclear weapons, together with the anti-Israel rhetoric of the President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his demand for "the regime occupying Jerusalem" to "vanish from the page of time", has led Israelis to fear an eventual attack from Iran.

Israel threatening Iran

In November 2003 a Scottish newspaper claimed that Israel "warned that it is prepared to take unilateral military action against Iran if the international community fails to stop any development of nuclear weapons at the country's atomic energy facilities". It cited Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz stating, "under no circumstances would Israel be able to tolerate nuclear weapons in Iranian possession". In December 2005, a British newspaper claimed that the Israeli military had been ordered by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to plan for possible strikes on enrichment" class="mw-redirect">uranium enrichment sites in Iran in March 2006, based on Israeli intelligence estimates that Iran would be able to build nuclear weapons in two to four years. It was claimed that the special forces command was in the highest stage of readiness for an attack (state G) in December. Ariel Sharon reportedly said, "Israel - and not only Israel - cannot accept a nuclear Iran. We have the ability to deal with this and we're making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation. Israeli military Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz , was quoted as responding to the question of how far Israel was ready to go to stop Iran's nuclear energy program with the statement "Two thousand kilometers".Seymour Hersh says U.S. Department of Defense civilians led by Douglas Feith have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran

On 8 May 2006, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said in an interview with Reuters that "the president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map," Army Radio reported. Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, drew unusually stiff criticism from an analyst on Israel's state television, Yoav Limor, for talking of destroying another country.

In May 2006, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz stated that Iran’s nuclear facilities can be destroyed, hinting at a possible plan to do just that.

A secret Israeli plan to strike Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities at Natanz with nuclear bunker busters was disclosed to The Times in January 2007. The report alleged that:

The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb . Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz , exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout . “As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.

The tactical nuclear weapons would only be used if conventional weapons were "ruled out" and if the United States "declined to intervene", the article continues, based on "senior" military sources. Ephraim Kam, a strategic expert at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Strategic Studies and a former senior army intelligence officer, dismissed the report. "No reliable source would ever speak about this, certainly not to the Sunday Times," Kam told the Associated Press.

Shabtai Shavit , a former chief of the Mossad , said Iranian atomic facilities could be destroyed within a year. Isaac Ben-Israel , a former general of the Israeli Air Force , said an attack could be carried out at any time but only as a last resort. Iran's Shahab-3 missile exercises were conducted in early July demonstrating that Israel was within reach.

According to the New York Times, Israel sought help from the United States for a military attack against Iran. Israel reportedly asked for bunker-busting bombs for an attack on Iran's main nuclear complex and for permission to fly over Iraq to reach Iran's major nuclear complex at Natanz. The Bush administration rejected the requests. According to the article, White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before President Bush left office.

On 27 July 2009, Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak during a press conference with Robert Gates , the US Defense Secretary, in Jerusalem , "...warned Iran that a military strike on its nuclear facilities was still an option. We clearly believe that no option should be removed from the table. This is our policy. We mean it. We recommend to others to take the same position but we cannot dictate it to anyone”. The same day, Isarel's Ambassador to US, Gabriela Shalev , during a special UN Security Council session held to discuss the situation in the Middle East , called Iran the "biggest supporter of terrorism. The Islamic Republic's nuclear program and its support of terrorism pose a threat to the entire Middle East."

Speculations

On May 26, 2006, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov reiterated Moscow's commitment to supply Iran with sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles. However Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President of F-35 Program Integration Tom Burbage has indicated that once Israel has the F-35 it need not fear the S-300 .

In June 2008, Israel conducted a major military exercise that American officials speculated might be training for a bombing attack on Iran. A senior Pentagon official said one of the goals of the exercise was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily: “They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know,” the Pentagon official said. “There’s a lot of signaling going on at different levels.”

The Bush administration did agree to sell a thousand GBU-39 standoff bunker penetrating bombs to Israel, but a strike against Natanz would require hundreds of these bombs.

On April 1, Army General David Petraeus said “the Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it.

Top Iranian general referring to the case of Mordechai Vanunu , former Israel's nuclear technician, who revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986, stated that "Israel's nuclear arsenal possess an immediate threat to Middle East"

On 17 September 2009, Ze'ev Elkin said that the delivery by Russia of S-300 missiles may prompt Israel to strike Iran. However in June 2010 Russia voted for UN sanctions to prevent the S-300 missile sale.

Iran threatening Israel

Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki declared that Israel was not capable of an attack and still recovering from the 2006 war in Lebanon. The Iranian Chief of the Revolutionary Guards , Mohammad Ali Jafari said Israel was within the reach of Iranian missiles and Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz , cutting off two-fifths of the global oil supply . Iran has the capability to close the Strait of Hormuz or impede traffic for a month or more, and any U.S. attempts to reopen it could escalate the conflict.

According to Mohammad Ali Jafari "If Israel military agresses against sovereignty and independence of the Islamic Republic of Iran , the country will use its right, established under international law which inevocably establishes the right to defend its sovereignty by all lawful means available to it. Moreover, if such aggression is penetrated, the United Nations will be obliged to repulse such an aggression towards its sovereign member"

On 7 February 2010, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the destruction of Israel was assured. According to the Teheran Times , Khamenei told Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah , "Israel is going downhill toward decline and fall and God willing its obliteration is certain". Khamenei went on to call Israel "a symbol of atrocity, viciousness, and ugliness," and said the West’s "support for the Zionist regime is ineffective."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, said that if Israel attacked Iran it would be destroyed within a week.