Israel, Iran and the US

Laura Rozen at her War and Piece blog (01/11/09) comments on this article by David Sanger, U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site New York Times 01/10/08. She writes:

... we may have seen reports on some of it. But the Sanger piece gives far more credence to and, more importantly, the imprimatur of White House confirmation on, two things: [Seymour] Hersh's report on the existence of a US Iran covert action program (however limited in aims, scope and effectiveness), and how Israel tried to push Bush as recently as this past summer to hit Iran by trying to get permission to make acquisitions and get Iraq overflight permission to do it themselves. (Worth noting: I had reported that Israeli intel chief Meir Dagan was unusually having meetings at the White House one day last July, regarding Iran. But after reading the Sanger piece, it occurs to me that the meeting was likely about the White House briefing Dagan on the alleged covert action program [which seemingly only Bush and his immediate lieutenants would be authorized to do], rather than Dagan reiterating Israeli requst for some sort of bunker buster it apparently already had acquired from the US, the GBU-28.) What Sanger says the Bush White House can't answer is how seriously Israel was actually considering doing it itself had it gotten permission from the White House, which it was reportedly denied. [my emphasis]

Those covert ops inside Iran may be something that bores our celebrity pundits to death, so they they don't much talk about it and therefore much of the public gets little or no awareness that such things are going on. But the Iranians surely know that some of this is happening, although depending on how well the "covert" part is working, they may not exactly know how. So far, there have been no reports of US Special Forces being captured in Iran.

But this no doubt has an effect in Iran's overall foreign policy calculations, including the nature of their support for Hamas in the occupied territories and Hizbullah in Lebanon. On Iran's relations with Hamas and how their are being spun by those still wanting a US war with Iran, see also In Washington, All Roads Lead to Tehran by Daniel Luban, Inter Press Service 01/09/09.

Tags: iran, israel, laura rozen, palestinians