UK army chief secretly visits Tel Aviv
Press TV – November 4, 2011 http://www.presstv.ir/detail/208350.html
British military chief General Sir David Richards has secretly visited Tel Aviv earlier this week, the Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post quoted the regime’s military sources as saying.
Richards who is Britain’s Chief of the Defense Staff reportedly held several meetings with the senior commanders of the Israeli regime’s army though there are no details on the subject of his talks.
He also visited the northern parts of the Israeli occupied territories at the regime’s borders with Lebanon.
The secret visit comes as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are reportedly making efforts to rally enough support in the cabinet to launch a military attack on Iran though an Israeli minister has dismissed a conflict as imminent.
“This issue [of military attack on Iran] should be discussed by the cabinet and put to the vote. But this event has not been taking place yet,” said the minister, who is a member of the eight-member ‘intracabinet’ group opposed to an attack on Iran.
Moreover, after it emerged that Richards secretly met with Israel’s military and intelligence senior staff, Barak arrived in London on Wednesday to meet with Richards and Britain’s Defence Secretary Philip Hammond and National Security Adviser Sir Peter Ricketts.
The British media have also reported that Britain is developing plans for military action against Iran through deploying cruise missile-armed submarines and warships near the country’s waters to help a possible US strike.
This comes as it is widely believed that the media hype about an imminent attack on Iran is part of the psychological warfare over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
Nevertheless, Iran has categorically announced that its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has never been able to provide any evidence indicating that Iran’s nuclear activities are military oriented.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials have repeatedly pledged that any attack on the country will be costly to the aggressors.
AMR/ISH/HE