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Reuters WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say Israel carried out a large military
exercise this month that appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential
bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, The New York Times reported
on Friday.
Citing unidentified American officials, the newspaper said more than 100
Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters took part in the manoeuvres over the
eastern Mediterranean and Greece in the first week of June. It said the exercise appeared to be an effort to focus on long-range
strikes and illustrates the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's
nuclear program. The newspaper said Israeli officials would not discuss the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country's
air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront
and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel," according
to the Times. A Pentagon official who the Times said was briefed on the exercise, said
one goal was to practice flight tactics, aerial refuelling and other
details of a possible strike against Iran's nuclear installations and
long-range conventional missiles. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a second goal
was to send a clear message that Israel was prepared to act militarily
if other efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium fail. "They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they
wanted the Iranians to know," the Pentagon official said, according to
the Times. "There's a lot of signalling going on at different levels." Several U.S. officials told the newspaper they did not believe Israel
had decided to attack Iran or think such a strike was imminent. The U.N. Security Council has imposed several rounds of sanctions on
Iran for defying council demands that it suspend its uranium enrichment
program, which could be used to make fuel for power plants or atomic
weapons. Iran has refused to buckle to the sanctions and has spurned previous
offers of economic benefits to suspend its uranium enrichment, which it
says is to produce fuel for electrical power plants rather than for
nuclear weapons. Iran said Thursday it was ready to negotiate over a new package of
economic incentives put forward by major powers seeking to persuade
Tehran to curb its nuclear work.
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