'US prepping facilities for Israel attack on Iran'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 01/14/2012 10:49
US defense officials concerned Israel will attack Iran over its nuclear program; Obama, US secretary of defense have warned Jerusalem of dangerous repercussions of strike, 'Wall Street Journal' reports.
US embassy compound, Baghdad Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
The
United States has begun taking measures to plan for a possible Israeli strike on
Iran in order to protect US facilities in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
The
contingency planning comes as a result of concern within the US defense
establishment that Israel is planning to attack Iran over the Islamic
Republic's reported nuclear armament program, according to the
newspaper.
RELATED:
Peres: "Israel wasn't involved in Iran scientist killing"
Netanyahu, Obama talk Mideast peace, Iran
Japan vows 'concrete' steps to cut Iran oil reliance
Iran to UN: Condemn nuclear scientist killing
US President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon
Panetta, and other senior US officials have reportedly delivered
messages through private channels to the Israeli government warning them
about the dangerous repercussions of a military strike on Iran.
Washington
is concerned that Iraqi Shi'ite militias may attack the US embassy in
Baghdad at Iran's behest. Some 15,000 US diplomats, federal employees
and contractors remained Iraq after the last of its troops pulled out of the country late last year., the newspaper reported.
Tensions
between Israel and the Islamic Republic spiked above normal
this past week when an Iranian nuclear scientist was blown up in his car
in Tehran in an attack that Iranian officials blamed on Israel.
President
Shimon Peres, speaking a number of days following the bombing, said
that the attack was not carried out by Israel, to the best of his
knowledge.
US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had a phone conversation Thursday, discussing "recent Iran-related
developments."
The following day, Netanyahu was quoted by The Australian as saying that new US sanctions on Iran were starting to bite.