ISRAEL is reportedly drawing up plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities and is prepared to launch a strike without backing from the US.

“It is always better to coordinate,” a top Defence Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post.

“But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination.” 

Israel would prefer to work in consultation with the US because the US Air Force controls the Iraqi airspace its jets would need to cross on a bombing mission.

“There are a wide range of risks one takes when embarking on such an operation,” a top Israeli official said.

Iran, the world’s fourth-largest crude producer, says its uranium enrichment activities are aimed at making fuel for a network of planned electricity-generating nuclear power plants and not for developing weapons.

A report, published in September in Britain’s Guardiannewspaper, claimed that Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested a green light to attack Iran in May but was refused by George W. Bush 

Iran has already dismissed the possibility of an Israeli strike. 

“We think that regional and international developments and the complicated situation faced by Israel itself will not allow it to launch military strikes against other countries,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the Press TV Web site.

 ”Israel makes threats to promote its psychological and media warfare.”

[Source: NEWS.com.au, December 04, 2008 04:12pm]