London, Feb 24: Israel has sought permission
from the United States to fly its jets over the Iraqi airspace
to conduct strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, a media
report said Saturday.
To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear
programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq.
But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need
permission from the pentagon, 'the daily telegraph' revealed.
Negotiations were now underway between the two
countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air
corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on
unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing
nuclear weapons, a senior Israeli defence official was quoted
as saying by the newspaper.
"We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting
out issues such as these are crucially important," said the
official, who asked not to be named.
"The only way to do this is to fly through
US-controlled air space. If we don't sort these issues out now
we could have a situation where American and Israeli war
planes start shooting at each other."
As Iran continues to defy UN demands to stop producing
material which could be used to build a nuclear bomb, Israel's
military establishment is moving on to a war footing, with
preparations now well under way for the jewish state to launch
air strikes against Teheran if diplomatic efforts fail to
resolve the crisis.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, February 24, 2007, 00:00