Some senior members of the Israeli government have reportedly thrown their support behind the possibility of striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. The change came after having been updated on Tehran’s secretive progress toward building a nuclear weapon, American sources told Fox television on Sunday.
The report comes as Israeli President Shimon Peres reiterated Sunday that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely.
"The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option," Peres told the Israel Hayom daily.
On Tuesday or Wednesday, the UN nuclear watchdog is expected to present a new report that could give strong evidence that Iran has worked on nuclear weapons. Among other previously undisclosed information, the IAEA plans to unveil intelligence accusing Tehran of making computer models of a nuclear warhead.
In recent days, Israeli media discussed divisions inside the Israeli government over whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The Haaretz newspaper reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barack were seeking cabinet support for the attack.
Meanwhile, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon argued that Israel should give international sanctions on Iran more time, and that if military action did become necessary, it would be better for the US to do it, the paper said.
According to Haaretz’s opinion poll, 41 per cent of Israelis support the attack while 39 per cent oppose it and 20 per cent are undecided.
Anybody with us?
However, Israel’s warlike attitudes may leave it alone in the battlefield as its allies in the West are not in a hurry to throw their support for any attacks against Iran.
With NATO and namely the US being entrenched in Iraq and Afghanistan and having spent huge funds on Libyan campaign, it seems unlikely that they would unleash a military operation against regional powerhouse Iran.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has consistently stated that even though it admits that Iran is a serious threat it is not seeking to provoke conflict with it.
US officials have failed to secure a commitment from Israel that it would coordinate its action against Tehran with Washington, AFP reported quoting Israeli media.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has stated that "Everything must be done to avoid the irreversible."
"We have imposed sanctions that continue to expand, we can toughen them to put pressure on Iran," Juppe told Europe 1 radio. "We will continue on this path because a military intervention could create a situation that completely destabilizes the region."
Moscow has also warned against attacking Iran, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying that the strike would be a serious mistake with unpredictable consequences. He underlined that there is no military solution to international conflicts.
“We get evidence of that every day when we see how problems around Iran are being solved: whether it’s in Iraq, or Afghanistan or what is happening in other countries of that region,” the minister said on Monday.
As the IAEA report is due to be released, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi accused the UN nuclear agency of "political" behavior and labeled the report as "baseless."
One of Iran’s senior clerics, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, advised IAEA chief Yukiya Amano not to defame the global body by unveiling “false” documents, according to IRNA news agency.
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