Israel denies pre-emptive nuclear strike

Israel reacted with anger yesterday to a British newspaper report claiming that it was preparing a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Iran to stop the hardline regime in Teheran acquiring nuclear weapons.

Sources at the Israeli prime minister’s office, foreign ministry and defence ministry, as well as a retired intelligence expert, denied the report flatly. While Israel is unlikely to ever use its nuclear strike capability pre-emptively on Iran, Israeli military planners have long been considering options for conventional strikes if Teheran continues to defy diplomatic pressure.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, prefers to emphasise Israel’s support for the multinational diplomatic effort, although his planners have already spent years considering what to do if the diplomatic track fails. Israel resorted to force in 1981 to destroy Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor at Osirak with conventional bombs dropped from eight F-16 jets in a covert mission known as Operation Opera.