The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Iran attack in June?

According to Electronic Iraq, Scott Ritter is dropping hits that Seymour Hersh will reveal a plan to bomb Iran's nuclear plant in June.

Meanwhile, the pro-Israel Washington Times is reporting that Israel is lobbying the US to take out the plant:

Israel has been privately pressing Washington to solve the Iran nuclear problem in a hint that Tel Aviv may be left with no choice but to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, defense officials say.
Military analysts say the United States "would have no problem" taking out Iran's major nuclear facilities should it decide to launch a pre-emptive strike. The defense officials say Israel isn't putting its concerns about Iran in the form of a "you attack or we do" ultimatum to the United States. But they said senior
Israeli officials often have raised the Iran problem during visits to Washington in the past 18 months.
Tel Aviv's concerns are one reason the Bush administration in the past year has ratcheted up its rhetoric and its intelligence collection on Iran's clandestine program to build nuclear weapons, including surveillance flights by unmanned U.S. planes.
The officials said they think President Bush, who has adopted a policy of pre-emption to prevent terrorists from obtaining atomic arms, is on a course to take military action before he leaves office in 2009.


Yes, neither of these are class A sources, but still interesting to follow these developments. Let's wait for what Hersh has to say, if anything.

Update: This lede from the WaPo is funny:

BRUSSELS, Feb. 22 -- President Bush said Tuesday that concern about possible U.S. military action against Iran "is simply ridiculous," but he added at a news conference that "all options are on the table" in dealing with suspected Iranian attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.