Julian Borger: US Warns Israel Off Pre-Emptive Strike on Iran!

Arab spring has left US friendly rulers in the region nervous about the possible impact of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program. US military commanders have warned their Israeli counterparts that any action against Iran would severely limit the ability of American forces in the region to mount their own operations against the Iranian nuclear program, by cutting off vital logistical support from Gulf Arab allies. US, naval, air and ground forces are depended for bases, refuelling and supplies on Gulf Arab rulers, who are deeply concerned about the progress Iran has made in its nuclear program, but also about the rising challenge to their regimes posed by the Arab spring, and the galvanising impact on popular unrest of an Israeli attack on Iran. The US Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Senior US officers believe the one case in which they could not rely fully on those bases for military operations against Iranian installations would be if Israel acted first. "The Gulf states' one great fear is Iran going nuclear, The other is a regional war that would destabilize them," said a source in the region. "They might support a massive war against Iran, but they are not going to get that, and they know a limited strike is not worth it, as it will not destroy the program and only make Iran angrier." Israeli leaders had hinted they might take military action to set back the Iranian program, but that threat receded in September, when the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told the United Nations general assembly that Iran's advances in uranium enrichment would only breach Israel's "red line" in spring or summer next year. Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, said this week in London that it was the Iranian decision this year to convert a third of the country's stock of 20% enriched uranium into fuel, making it harder to convert to weapons grade material if Iran decided to make a weapon, that had bought another "eight to 10 months".