A ranking official with a pro-Israeli lobbying group in the United Sates says a military strike on Iran is “likely” but awaits a “major provocation.”
An-Nahar’s Sarkis Naoum quoted the unnamed official as saying “two factors delay the American strike: First-its financial and humanitarian costs. Second-the lack of major provocation to justify it.”
“The president (Bush) told me that he would order it (strike) once its conditions are available … it would usher him into history,” the source added.
He said such a strike “would not include landing operations and no overland war. It would be restricted to air war that would demolish everything.”
The source advised Naoum to “follow up the deployment of our fleets in Hormuz (straits) and the Mediterranean and you would know if we would hit Iran or not.”
In answering a question as to whether Israel would take part in attacking Iran, the source said: “… Iran, certainly, is a very serious threat to Israel, either directly or through Hizbullah and Hamas.”
“Hizbullah has rearmed and redeployed both south and north of the Litani River and UNIFIL doesn’t do anything about it,” he added.
“Maybe Hizbullah would make use of a wide-ranging war in Gaza to strike in Lebanon,” the source added.
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