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Iran 'getting ready for US war'
01/04/2007 20:25 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Iran is making defensive
preparations for what it fears will be a US military attack
this summer, Israel's military intelligence chief said on
Sunday.
Major-General Amos Yadlin also told the Israeli cabinet that
Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters and Syria believed they could be
targeted in any US-initiated war against Iran, an Israeli
government official said, briefing reporters on his remarks.
"What we are seeing is their preparation for the possibility
of war in the summer. "My assessment is that they are defensive
preparations for war," Yadlin was quoted as saying, referring to
Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.
The government official said Yadlin spoke about Iranian
fears of a US, not an Israeli, offensive.
The official gave no details about the type of military
preparations Yadlin said Iran was making to meet any US
attack. Monitoring preparations
"We are closely monitoring these preparations because (Iran,
Syria and Hezbollah) could misinterpret various moves in the
region," Yadlin said, according to the official.
In Washington on Thursday, US Under-Secretary of State
Nicholas Burns said the United States was "convinced diplomacy
is the way to proceed" to curb Iran's nuclear programme.
Burns told the Senate's foreign relations committee that
Washington did not believe conflict with Tehran was inevitable.
The UN Security Council widened sanctions against Iran on
March 24 after it defied a second deadline to stop enriching
uranium - a process Tehran says will yield solely electricity, but
world powers fear could be used to build atomic weapons.
Washington and London also accuse Iran of supporting
insurgents fighting their forces in Iraq.
- Reuters
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