A joint US-Israeli strike against Iran is in the works, says Sherif Hetata* In January Vice-President Dick Cheney said in a radio interview that Iran heads the list of America's enemies and hinted that Israel would spearhead any military moves against Tehran. Shortly after former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said that "Cheney wants Ariel Sharon to attack Iran for us" though that is an oversimplification of the envisaged scenario since Israel would only attack Iran with the active participation of the US. What is actually being planned, then, is a joint military operation to bomb Iran, and the defence, working alongside Israeli military and intelligence experts, has already identified potential Iranian targets. For two years American and British intelligence and special forces have been cooperating with their Israeli counterparts to decide on tactics in what the American neo- conservative Evening Standard, a part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire which also includes Fox TV, said would not be a ground war. The withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon has opened up a new space for the deployment of Israeli forces, and the participation of Turkey in any attack is envisaged following agreements reached between Ankara and Tel-Aviv. Israel has replaced Great Britain as the world's fifth largest nuclear power with an arsenal estimated at between 200 and 500 thermo-nuclear weapons with a sophisticated delivery system. Neutron bombs, miniature thermo-nuclear warheads that release long-term radiation while leaving property intact, comprise a major component of Israel's weapons, which also include ballistic missiles from both the United States and Russia. Recently Israel received 5,000 "smart" air- launched weapons from the United States, including 500 BLV 109 bunker-buster bombs. The uranium-coated munitions the Israelis now possess are said to be enough to deal with the full range of potential Iranian targets. To attack Iran serves the interests of the American/British oil multinationals, the Wall Street financial establishment and, of course, the military industrial complex. The Middle East/ Central Asian Region accounts for more than 70 per cent of the world's oil and gas reserves. As a part of the NATO Israel Protocol agreed in November 2004, NATO is sponsoring a framework known as the Mediterranean Dialogue Programme. The Israel delegation that met in Brussels to finalise the protocol agreed to participate in military exercises and anti-terror manoeuvres alongside a number of Arab countries. In January Israel and Turkey carried out joint military exercises off the coast of Syria which were at the time described as routine. The following month Israel participated in NATO military exercises alongside several Arab countries. The February assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri became a pretext to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops form Lebanon. In the same month Sharon fired his chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon and appointed Air Force General Dan Halutz as his replacement. Halutz, with his air force background, is the man best placed to coordinate any aerial bombing of Iran. Meanwhile, NATO's secretary-general visited Jerusalem for talks with Sharon and senior Israeli military staff. Other developments include leaks of an initial authorisation by Sharon to attack Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant, joint United States-Israeli military exercises, including the launching of Patriot missiles in March and April and official visits by Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. Rumsfeld's diplomatic offensive in April was described in the Russian media as an attempt to encircle Iran in order to find the best bridgehead for military operations. In Baku Rumsfeld concentrated on fixing a date for the deployment of US troops in Azerbaijan on the north western border of Iran. Military bases in Azerbaijan are being prepared for any operation against Iran. Iran is now surrounded by military bases in Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Iraq. These countries are, as is Turkmenistan, members of NATO's oddly misnamed Partnership for Peace Programme, and have military cooperation agreements with NATO. The preparations are all in place for a war we must try to prevent. This will not be easy: recent history has shown that anti-war rallies and mass demonstrations have little impact on reversing the tide of war. What is required is a grass roots network, a mass movement on the local, national, regional and international level, a network linked to other social, economic and cultural forces that challenge the legitimacy of military leaders. This can pave the way to unseating those who rule. War criminals are in positions of authority and must be removed. They use fear, media misinformation and humanitarian slogans to win support, justify their crimes and legitimise war. To reverse the tide of war there must be a staged civil disobedience with military bases encircled and closed down, the production of ammunition stopped, the police state paralysed and dismantled by the force of protesting numbers. Corporate backers, sponsors of war, oil companies, defence companies and contractors, financial institutions and the corporate media must be exposed and targeted. War criminals in the United States, Britain, Israel and across the Mediterranean region must be removed from office. The "war on terrorism" must be exposed. Ways of dealing with the millions won over to fundamentalism must be discovered so that they gradually become a part of the popular anti-war movement, of the march to real democracy. As an integral part of this movement the issue of Israeli weapons of mass destruction must become a part of an action agenda. This will contribute to destabilising the dynamics driving the Middle East arms race and the ongoing preparations for war. It can also contribute as a first step to a comprehensive and just peace agreement which respects the rights of the Palestinian people by raising an issue which will see Israel face widespread international disapproval. * The writer is novelist and political analyst.
