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Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites

The_Penguin

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Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.

In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran.

To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.

-snip-

Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites - Times Online

Either this year or next. Don't see this dragging into 2012 and beyond.
 
Israel could conduct an attack if they wanted to without the use of Saudi air space anyway. The Southern route would be the least risk in terms of the operational, but the highest in terms of political risks. Ultimately the best route would be one over Syria (and potentially Turkey or Iraq for a small fraction) which would pose a moderate operational risk, but low political risk.

Israel has no peace treaty with Syria, there is basically no Syrian aircraft presence on the northern border, and Israel's EW capabilities could in all likelihood render the Syrian air defense network useless without actually firing a shot.

Of course if Israel wanted to as well, they could bag an air raid all together and launch a ballistic missile attack with the Jericho III, and avoid political liabilities from the use of air space, but possibily end up with a less certain outcome in terms of site destruction.
 
Israel could conduct an attack if they wanted to without the use of Saudi air space anyway. The Southern route would be the least risk in terms of the operational, but the highest in terms of political risks. Ultimately the best route would be one over Syria (and potentially Turkey or Iraq for a small fraction) which would pose a moderate operational risk, but low political risk.

Israel has no peace treaty with Syria, there is basically no Syrian aircraft presence on the northern border, and Israel's EW capabilities could in all likelihood render the Syrian air defense network useless without actually firing a shot.

Of course if Israel wanted to as well, they could bag an air raid all together and launch a ballistic missile attack with the Jericho III, and avoid political liabilities from the use of air space, but possibily end up with a less certain outcome in terms of site destruction.

They could also use the route EL-AL uses when it flys nonstop to India just on the edge of the Saudi-Sudani airspace uncontroled by neither.
 
They could also use the route EL-AL uses when it flys nonstop to India just on the edge of the Saudi-Sudani airspace uncontroled by neither.

That seems like it would create far more hassles than it would be worth in terms of time/fuel/distance etc..
 
While I'm not exactly happy with the prospect of an Iranian nuke, this prospect of a military strike worries me.

If the situation escalates, it may very well get out of hand. I'm not sure exactly about Iran's capabilities, but if they decide to retaliate, this is likely going to spread to Syria which is allied to Iran. Then it might become a full fledged war including the use of ground troops between Israel and Syria. Then, American troops are still in Iraq and they may easily get involved too, especially if Iran decides to block or bomb oil deliveries in the Gulf, the US might decide to take countermeasures against that and be drawn into a war against Iran as well. An exploding oil price may have severe impact on world economy, especially the US and Europe, and easily become a burden that breaks our economic necks, considering the tensed budget and economic situation. Once this level of escalation has been reached, I wonder if other countries, like Saudi-Arabia, Egypt or Pakistan will just stand aside and watch.

This may be just a worst case scenario, but I don't think it is very improbable. I'd prefer if it could be avoided. So let's hope Iran gives in before Israel decides to start an attack.
 
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