US troops sitting ducks...if Iran is attacked

Source: Press TV, 07-10-2008

Washington will not allow an 'Israeli' strike on Iranian nuclear facilities while US troops are in Iraq, 'Israeli' diplomatic sources claim.

According to a Monday report on 'Israel's' Channel 10, unnamed 'Israeli' sources said the presence of US troops in Iraq spoils chances of an 'Israeli' strike on Iran, arguing that any military action would leave US forces stationed in Iraq vulnerable to Tehran's retaliation.

Tel Aviv has threatened to launch air strikes against Iranian nuclear installations under the
pretext that Tehran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has plans to develop nuclear weaponry.

This is while, in its latest report on Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it could not find any 'components of a nuclear weapon' or 'related nuclear physics studies' in the country.

In response to war threats, Iran has warned that it would not hesitate to target ''Israel' and 32 US bases' in the region, should the country come under attack.

An 'Israeli' official accompanying 'Israeli' Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on a visit to Moscow, however, declined to comment on the Channel 10 report. According to a senior 'Israeli' official, Olmert is in Russia to persuade the country into not selling S-300 missile defense system to Iran.

Late in September, The Guardian quoted EU diplomatic sources as saying that US president George W. Bush in a one to one meeting with 'Israeli' Premier Ehud Olmert on May 14 rejected the idea of an 'Israeli' attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Bush not only ruled out the idea but insisted that his view would not change, according to The Guardian.

The Monday report comes as several 'Israeli' military and Mossad officials, in an unexpected move on Sunday, endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Democrat Barack Obama has vowed direct talks with Iranian leaders over its nuclear activities. The Arizona Senator has also declared that he would remove US combat troops within 16 months of taking office in January, 2009.

However, Republican John McCain, a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, has refused to provide a timetable and has said that troops could remain in Iraq for 'a hundred years.'

Former Gaza Sector Commander, Brig.-Gen. Shaul Arieli said, "Obama is the right man for the job [of stopping Iran]."

The former Mossad agent, Alpher, said Republican candidate John McCain would continue the failed policies of the current US President.

"Four more years of indecisiveness would harm 'Israel'," claimed former chief of the Army Central Command, Amram Mitzna.