Israel may attack Iran after December - Le Canard Enchaine

According to an unconfirmed report in the French Le Canard Enchaine of Wednesday, Oct. 14, Israel is preparing to bomb Iranian nuclear sites and pro-Iranian targets across the Middle East after December 2009. The prestigious satirical weekly reports that the IDF has notified special forces reservists abroad to get ready to return home in November for immediate drafting to the military operation against Iranian nuclear facilities. The weekly further reports Israel has ordered combat rations from a French firm for these reservists to stay on long-term missions far from home.

French military sources said that Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi met secretly in France with US armed forces Chief of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and French Chief of Staff Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, to inform that Israel planned to attack Iran after December, when it became clear that the talks between the six powers and Tehran had failed to produce any benefit.

According to Le Canard Enchaine, Ashkenazi said Israel would not attack Iran by air but rather use ground forces in coordinated operations on several Middle East fronts.

The information leaked to the newspaper from French joint staffs sources is correct - and not a red herring to disguise the impending attack’s real nature - the IDF may be expected to branch out from Iran’s nuclear facilities to target its allies too, such as Syrian air force and missile batteries, Hizballah bases in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Le Canard Enchaine is not alone in predicting an Israeli attack on Iran after December. A former Israeli deputy defense minister, Efraim Sneh, commented to US and British media several times in the past week that if the US fails to rally fellow powers’ support for toughened sanctions against Iran by Christmas, Israel will have to attack its nuclear installations. It may be assumed that Sneh was not just guessing on his own initiative.

Another sign of the growing military tensions surrounding the Iranian nuclear program was a phone conversation late Wednesday night between Obama and French President Nicola Sarkozy. The two discussed Iran. After Hillary Clinton failed to swing Russian leaders round to supporting sanctions, when she visited Moscow Tuesday, Washington sources report that Obama has decided to work with the French president for efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

In related news Russia’s abrupt suspension of consignments of advanced Tor-M1 air defense missiles and S-300 anti-missile systems has left Tehran high and dry for effective weapons to defend itself and its nuclear facilities against attacks.

Iran has recently deployed it latest “Lightning” fighter jet but most think that is simply too little, too late to stop an attack by Israel’s highly effective air force and special forces. Israel has also sortied at least two German built Dolphin class submarines to BE within range of Iran’s nuclear facilities using Harpoon missiles and/or to be able to insert special forces.

Iran has tested its two-stage solid-fuel Sejil has a range of 2,200 km.. It is accurate within a 20-meter radius but is a ground-to ground missiles which is incapable of repelling missile or air attacks. Of course it could strike Israeli cities with conventional warheads and with chemical and biological weapons which Israel considers WMDs promising to retaliate.

The Russians apparently froze the transfers of anti-missile, anti-air missiles to Iran in the expectation of Saudi Arabia following through on negotiations for the purchase of the latest word in Russian anti-missile hardware, the S-400, which is more advanced than the S-300 system now withheld from Iran. It has never been sold to a foreign government and even the Russian army has only two brigades armed with S-400 batteries. The Saudis insisted on making the transaction contingent on Moscow withholding the S-300 and Tor-M1 from Iran.