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Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites

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  • Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites

    From The Times June 12, 2010

    Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites

    Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.

    In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.

    To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.

    “The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” said a US defence source in the area. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.”

    Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing,” said one.

    The four main targets for any raid on Iran would be the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.

    The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles (2,250km) from Israel; the outer limits of their bombers’ range, even with aerial refuelling. An open corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the distance. An airstrike would involve multiple waves of bombers, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest.

    Passing over Iraq would require at least tacit agreement to the raid from Washington. So far, the Obama Administration has refused to give its approval as it pursues a diplomatic solution to curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Military analysts say Israel has held back only because of this failure to secure consensus from America and Arab states. Military analysts doubt that an airstrike alone would be sufficient to knock out the key nuclear facilities, which are heavily fortified and deep underground or within mountains. However, if the latest sanctions prove ineffective the pressure from the Israelis on Washington to approve military action will intensify. Iran vowed to continue enriching uranium after the UN Security Council imposed its toughest sanctions yet in an effort to halt the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme, which Tehran claims is intended for civil energy purposes only. President Ahmadinejad has described the UN resolution as “a used handkerchief, which should be thrown in the dustbin”.

    Israeli officials refused to comment yesterday on details for a raid on Iran, which the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has refused to rule out. Questioned on the option of a Saudi flight path for Israeli bombers, Aharaon Zeevi Farkash, who headed military intelligence until 2006 and has been involved in war games simulating a strike on Iran, said: “I know that Saudi Arabia is even more afraid than Israel of an Iranian nuclear capacity.”

    In 2007 Israel was reported to have used Turkish air space to attack a suspected nuclear reactor being built by Iran’s main regional ally, Syria. Although Turkey publicly protested against the “violation” of its air space, it is thought to have turned a blind eye in what many saw as a dry run for a strike on Iran’s far more substantial — and better-defended — nuclear sites.

    Israeli intelligence experts say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are at least as worried as themselves and the West about an Iranian nuclear arsenal.Israel has sent missile-class warships and at least one submarine capable of launching a nuclear warhead through the Suez Canal for deployment in the Red Sea within the past year, as both a warning to Iran and in anticipation of a possible strike. Israeli newspapers reported last year that high-ranking officials, including the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have met their Saudi Arabian counterparts to discuss the Iranian issue. It was also reported that Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, met Saudi intelligence officials last year to gain assurances that Riyadh would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets violating Saudi airspace during the bombing run. Both governments have denied the reports.
    Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites - Times Online
    Old question, but then what have the Israeli currently got in their arsenal to pound and meaningfully destroy, hardened underground facilities? And I mean conventional munition.
    sigpicAnd on the sixth day, God created the Field Artillery...

  • #2
    F-15I or F-16I for air cover, F-15I for ground attack using GBU-28 bunker busters. Chances are the F-16I won't participate at all, the range is too large, though if they can refuel over Saudi Arabia it might just work.
    Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

    Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

    Comment


    • #3
      Though this has been beaten time and again, but taking this new route and KSA's cooperation into consideration, how many aircrafts can accomplish the task? You have to dedicate some for the actual attack, some for SEAD, air superiority and CAP and some for refuelling. How many sorties can the IAF manage with a targeted range so vast?
      sigpicAnd on the sixth day, God created the Field Artillery...

      Comment


      • #4
        Israel has 25 F-15I's, the premier dual role fighter in it's arsenal. It stands to reason that they could pull all of those for the mission using the F-15A/C's and F-16's for the border protection missions. Depending on how much range is cut, Israel has 101 F-16I's which could join the fray, but that's iffy. F-16's don't really have the range.

        If the IAF does take all 25 F-15I's, you would have 6 groups of 4, with 1 spare. You could use 3 groups for ground attack, 1 group for SEAD and 2 groups for air cover over the target. The Osirak attack in 1981 only employed 8 F-16A's for ground attack and 6 F-15A's for air support.

        These are all amateur ramblings. I'm a tank toad, not a zoomie. If we could get accurate information as to how this cuts down the range and if a couple air attack experts chimed in we could come up with a relatively accurate hypothetical picture of an attack. Until then, it's all just guesswork
        Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

        Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by bigross86 View Post
          Israel has 25 F-15I's, the premier dual role fighter in it's arsenal. It stands to reason that they could pull all of those for the mission using the F-15A/C's and F-16's for the border protection missions. Depending on how much range is cut, Israel has 101 F-16I's which could join the fray, but that's iffy. F-16's don't really have the range.

          If the IAF does take all 25 F-15I's, you would have 6 groups of 4, with 1 spare. You could use 3 groups for ground attack, 1 group for SEAD and 2 groups for air cover over the target. The Osirak attack in 1981 only employed 8 F-16A's for ground attack and 6 F-15A's for air support.

          These are all amateur ramblings. I'm a tank toad, not a zoomie. If we could get accurate information as to how this cuts down the range and if a couple air attack experts chimed in we could come up with a relatively accurate hypothetical picture of an attack. Until then, it's all just guesswork
          *Either that or the rest of the modern world will find out all these details in the days following the attack.;)
          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

          Comment


          • #6
            TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The hardline spiritual mentor of Iran's president has made a rare public call for producing the "special weapons" that are a monopoly of a few nations - a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

            The Associated Press on Monday obtained a copy of a book written by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi in which he wrote Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce these "special weapons."

            Iran's government, as well as its clerical hierarchy, have repeatedly denied the country is seeking nuclear weapons, as alleged by the U.S. and its allies.

            The Security Council last week imposed a fourth round of sanctions in response to Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which Iran maintains is only for its nuclear energy program, but could conceivably be used to produce material for weapons.


            The new U.N. sanctions call for an asset freeze of another 40 additional companies and organizations, including 22 involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities.

            Yazdi's hardline views, including devotion to the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure to reappear ahead of judgement day, have had a strong impact on Ahmadinejad, who shows him more respect than any other senior cleric.

            Yazdi's book, "The Islamic Revolution, a Surge in Political Changes in History," was written in 2005 and then reprinted last year, but would have only had a very limited circulation among senior clerics and would not have been widely known.

            "The most advanced weapons must be produced inside our country even if our enemies don't like it. There is no reason that they have the right to produce a special type of weapons, while other countries are deprived of it," Yazdi said.

            Yazdi is a member of the Assembly of Experts, a conservative body of 86 senior clerics that monitors Iran's supreme leader and chooses his successor. He also heads the Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, an Islamic think tank, in the holy city of Qom, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of the capital.

            In his book, Yazdi said Iran must acquire the necessary deterrent weapons in order to be able to stand up to its enemies.

            "Under Islamic teachings, all common tools and materialistic instruments must be employed against the enemy and prevent enemy's military superiority," he said.

            He also said Muslims must not allow a few powers to monopolize certain weapons in their arsenal.

            "From Islam's point of view, Muslims must make efforts to benefit from the most sophisticated military equipment and get specific weapons out of the monopoly of powerful countries," he said.

            The last time a high ranking official made such remarks was in 2005 when Mohammad Javad Larijani, now a senior judiciary official, said Islam has not tied Iran's hands in producing nuclear weapons.

            But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, has repeatedly denied that Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons because Islam forbids weapons of mass destruction.

            Khamenei has reportedly issued a fatwa, or religious decree, saying the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons was forbidden under Islam.

            In May, a senior reformist cleric warned about the increasing power of Yazdi and his loyalists within the ruling system, calling them "a very dangerous and harsh current who won't show mercy to anybody."

            Earlier this month, a hardline website called Yazdi an "Imam", a title given only to Shiite Islam's saints and the founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Such a title has not been awarded to Khamenei, Iran's current leader.

            *An important clue as to why we need to put a halt to this before some radical moron like this appoints someone that can actually carry this out.;)
            Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

            Comment


            • #7
              IMHO just getting there and drpping 50 2000 pounders or even some GBU-28 is not going to do the job. Sustained air campaign which might take longer than 2 weeks is a most.

              At the other hand why should Israel get rid of a god givin gift like barbaric republic. Israel enjoys the outcome in internatioanl and IRI in regional level and they both keep feeding each other. Why should the trend stop now?

              Comment


              • #8
                Dread,

                I've been crowing like Paul Revere about the hidden Mahdi sub-faction for a couple of years now.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Aryajet View Post
                  Why should the trend stop now?
                  Because Iran has decided to cross the rubicon and many people are just not confortable with that. And that includes Israel.
                  sigpicAnd on the sixth day, God created the Field Artillery...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by zraver View Post
                    Dread,

                    I've been crowing like Paul Revere about the hidden Mahdi sub-faction for a couple of years now.
                    *Agreed, you have. It just boggles the mind how some of these people speak as though this is actually written in what we would consider a holy book or atleast this is what they point to when they speak of such things. They make it sound as though a religious book or an actual religion demands this. Its truelly sickening to know that they can bend this indealism in any way they wish and the sheep will follow. IMO, This is exactly why they pose such a danger. And this is why I would have no problem with bringing about their end post haste. Blasphemers.
                    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Z,

                      Originally posted by zraver View Post
                      Dread,

                      I've been crowing like Paul Revere about the hidden Mahdi sub-faction for a couple of years now.
                      The cult is called "Hojjatyyeh" the most dangerous group inside the regime and beside Mesbah Yazdi many IRGC commanders including Ahamadinnerjacket himself are part of the inner circle.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Majer,

                        Originally posted by Deltacamelately View Post
                        Because Iran has decided to cross the rubicon and many people are just not confortable with that. And that includes Israel.
                        Majority of Iranians are against nukes for crazy mullas, even if they don't use it against another nation Iranians know it very well that nukes will extend regime's rein for at least another 50 years.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          It all reminds me of a very old film I once saw... Return to the Planet of the Apes (?). In this film the remains of humanity live underground and are ruled by a thought controling elite sort of priesthood who can create seemingly realistic illusions. The object of their devotions is the one surviving BOMB...

                          Certainly censorship in Iran is getting increasingly harsh. I have a friend who lives in Tehran who complains that some browser games (erepublik etc) have recently been blocked.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I'd just like to say that i'm a player of erepublik, and the least I can do is confirm that there was an outcry in 'e'Iran about the game being blocked.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              If the parties involved were serious about an airstrike to take out whatever that needs to be taken out, this agreement would have taken place secretly.

                              This looks like nothing more than another political play to ratchet up the pressure more on Iran.

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