RAMALLAH, July 17 (JMCC) - Israel is planning an attack on Iran in September, a former CIA official told a US radio station,
reports the Jerusalem Post.
Robert Baer told a California radio station that the US would be drawn into an Israeli bombing raid on Iran, and that the Pentagon is already looking for targets. He referred to a warning by the former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan several weeks ago.
Baer told the KPFK Radio on Tuesday recent comments made by Dagan [...] “tell us with near certainty that [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is planning an attack, and in as much as I can guess when it’s going to be, it’s probably going to be in September, before a [UN General Assembly] vote on the Palestinian state.”
Netanyahu is “also hoping to draw the United States into the conflict – and in fact, there’s a warning order inside the Pentagon to prepare for conflict with Iran,” Baer said.
The retired senior CIA officer predicted that Israel would attack the Natanz nuclear facility, as well as “a couple of others to degrade their capabilities.”
“The Iranians will strike back where they can, and that will be in Basra and in Baghdad,” where the US has a reduced troop presence, Baer said.
“We’ve started to look at Iran’s targets in Iraq and across the border,” he said.
Baer, however, said a regional war was unlikely.
“What we’re facing here is an escalation, not a planned all-out war,” he said.
There was no response from the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.