Israel is primed for a war on Iran, a deputy to Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said Monday, in a rare break with his government's reticence
as world powers try to talk Tehran into curbing its nuclear plans.
By spearheading assaults on guerrillas in
neighboring Lebanon and Palestinian territories, the Israeli air force
had gained the techniques necessary for any future strikes on Iranian
sites, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said.
"There is no doubt that the technological
capabilities, which improved in recent years, have improved range and
aerial refueling capabilities, and have brought about a massive
improvement in the accuracy of ordnance and intelligence," he told a
conference of military officers and experts.
"This
capability can be used for a war on terror in Gaza, for a war in the
face of rockets from Lebanon, for war on the conventional Syrian army,
and also for war on a peripheral state like Iran," said Yaalon, a former
armed forces chief.
Israel, which
is assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, bombed Iraq's
nuclear reactor in 1981 and launched a similar sortie in Syria in 2007.
But its veiled threats against foe Iran
have been questioned by some independent analysts who see the potential
targets as too distant, dispersed, numerous and well-defended for
Israeli warplanes to take on alone.
Israel's
leaders rarely use the term "war" while publicly discussing how to deal
with Iran, in whose often secretive uranium enrichment, long-range
missile projects and hostile rhetoric the Jewish state sees a mortal
threat.
