Israel's government gave serious thought to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites earlier this year but was told by US president George Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, the British newspaper 'The Guardian' reports, citing sources close to a European leader who was briefed by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert used the occasion of Bush's trip to Israel for the 60th anniversary celebrations to raise the issue in a one-on-one meeting on 14 May, the sources said. He had taken the refusal of a US green light for a military strike "as where they were at the moment, and that the US position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office," they added.
The newspapers sources for the story are said to work for a European head of government who met the Israeli leader some time after the Bush visit. Their talks were so sensitive that no note-takers attended, but the European leader subsequently divulged to his officials the highly sensitive contents of what Olmert had told him of the US president's position. Bush's decision to refuse to support a strike on Iran appeared to be based on US concern over Iran's likely retaliation over the possibility that Israel would not succeed in disabling Iran's nuclear facilities in a single assault.
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