‘George Bush planning attack on Iran’

Israeli newspaper quotes senior aide as saying in report

US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran before his term ends, the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. His term ends on January 20, 2009.

According to the Post, during a closed meeting Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney felt military action was called for. However, “the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice” was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack. A senior Bush aide is quoted as the source of the story.

The Americans are apparently worried by what they see as Iran’s growing influence in Israel’s neighbourhood —- such danger signal is supposed to be Hezbollah’s de facto taking over of Lebanon. The Israeli newspaper’s report quoted Bush as saying at the closed-door meeting “the disease must be treated - not its symptoms”.

In an address to the Knesset during his visit to Israel last week, Bush said that “the president of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages… America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions… Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace,the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”