Speculation amid Israeli silence on US vice president's Iran remark

Jul 6, 2009, 9:30 GMT

Washington/Tel Aviv - Israel would not comment Monday on a signal by US Vice President Joe Biden that Washington would not stand in the way of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The US was not in a position to dictate to any sovereign nation what they could or could not do, Biden said in an interview Sunday with the US broadcaster ABC.

Israel could itself make those decisions that it thought in its best interests, Biden added, sparking speculation that this meant a 'green light' in case Israel decides to strike in Iran.

Asked about the speculation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev declined to comment, saying only 'I don't want to give any interpretation.'

Other Israeli officials however did comment on condition of anonymity to the local media.

'There are secret understandings between Israel and the Obama administration regarding Israel's options vis a vis Iran,' one senior government official told the pro-Netanyahu daily Israel Hayom.

The authoritative, left-wing Ha'aretz daily meanwile reported that against the backdrop of the unrest in Iran, Israel had over the past weeks sent urgent messages to the US, Germany, Russia, France and Japan that a 'Plan B' should already be prepared, in case a dialogue with Tehran failed to stop its nuclear programme.

That plan, Israel is arguing, should include 'paralysing sanctions.'

While some observers have interpreted Biden's remark to mean a go- ahead for Israel, others noted it could be part of coordinated Israeli-US psychological warfare, aimed at raising the pressure on Tehran, and perhaps even at influencing domestic developments there.

In a change of policy of previous governments and what Israeli media described as a risky move, Israel last month sent one of its three Dolphin-class submarines through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea.

Israeli defence officials described the naval drill as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.