January 15, 2012
US fears Israel ‘preparing for’ strike on Iran
Washington, The US government is concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran over US objections, and has stepped up contingency planning to safeguard US facilities in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported late on Friday even as Pentagon downplayed reports of a Middle East buildup.
The newspaper said President Barack Obama, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a series of private messages to Israeli leaders, warning about the dire consequences of a strike.
Obama spoke by telephone on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet Israeli military officials in Tel Aviv next week, the report said.
The Journal noted that the US military was preparing for a number of possible responses to an Israeli strike, including assaults by pro-Iranian militias in Iraq against the US Embassy in Baghdad.
Up to 15,000 US diplomats, federal employees and contractors still remain in Iraq.
To deter Iran, the US is maintaining 15,000 troops in Kuwait, and has moved a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Arabian Gulf area, the paper said.
Later, the Pentagon said Iran’s “destabilising behaviour” was a factor in its planning in the Middle East but sought to discourage speculation the US military was quietly building up forces in the region to counter any perceived threat.
Navy Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said he was not aware of any decision to permanently increase the number of troops based in Kuwait.
The US force there has expanded temporarily because a brigade deployed to Iraq at the end of the war had been shifted to Kuwait to finish its deployment, he said.
Force numbers in any given location shift regularly depending on needs, Kirby said. “I’m not aware of any plus-up that’s been ordered into Kuwait. And I don’t think the numbers would bear out that there is, in fact, a huge plus-up in Kuwait,” he said.
Kirby sought to downplay reports that “we’re ramping up presence in the Middle East because of Iran.”
“Iran is certainly a factor in our discussions with our allies and in our thinking about the future of the Middle East - there’s no question about it - thanks to their destabilising behaviour,” Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, a senior US defence official said Iranian Navy speed boats harassed US naval vessels in two recent incidents in the Strait of Hormuz, confirming a CNN report.
The first incident occurred as the USS New Orleans, an amphibious transport ship, was sailing last week through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf.
Three Iranian Navy speed boats rapidly approached within 500 yards of the US ship, according to US officials cited by CNN.
The second incident involved a US Coast Guard cutter off the Kuwaiti coast, similarly approached by an Iranian speedboat.
Sailors aboard the cutter USCGC Adak reported seeing Iranians aboard the speed boat brandishing AK-47 assault rifles and a heavy machine gun, CNN said.
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