Sarkozy: Israeli Attack Inevitable

by Gordon Prather

http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=13418

While the Republicans were nominating Sarah Palin – who reportedly believes the Bush-Cheney war of aggression against Iraq was inevitable, part of "God's plan" – French President Nicolas Sarkozy was in Damascus, warning the "leaders of Syria, Turkey and Qatar" that an Israeli attack on Iran also appears to be inevitable.

In comments broadcast on Syrian television, Sarkozy said

"One day – whatever the Israeli government – we could find one morning that Israel has struck.

"The question is not whether it would be legitimate, whether it would be intelligent. What will we do at that moment?"

Now, it is somewhat encouraging that Sarkozy apparently doesn't agree that illegitimate irrational acts are parts of "God's plan."

But, according to Sarkozy, there seems to be nothing we mortals can do to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran.

However, the Russians just may have seriously upset their plans.

According to UPI's Arnaud de Borchgrave, the special relationship Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has with the Cheney Cabal and with certain Israelis resulted in a secret agreement "earmarking" two military airfields in southern Georgia for regular use by Israeli unmanned aircraft for spying on Russia and Iran, and for special use by U.S.-supplied Israeli fighter-bombers, in the event the paranoid Israelis decide to launch an illegitimate (under international law) attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, all currently subject to a Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But, in driving Georgian invasion troops out of Ossetia, pursuing them back into Georgia, proper, the Russians briefly occupied those two military airfields and reportedly destroyed most of the U.S. and Israeli equipment they found there (and elsewhere), perhaps creating serious obstacles to the near-term implementation of the Israeli "bomb-bomb Iran" game-plan.

You see, the new "sovereign" state of Iraq had prohibited the Israelis from penetrating Iraqi airspace in order to attack Iran. However, if the Israelis could launch and recover their fighter-bombers from airfields in Georgia, they could avoid Iraq and the distance they would have to cover to their targets would be sharply reduced.

Of course, to utilize the Georgian airfields, the Israelis would have to over-fly Turkey.

However, the Turks didn't lodge a formal complaint when the Israelis penetrated their airspace last year to destroy – in violation of international law – a site in Syria where the Israeli paranoids suspected ten-foot-tall North Korean scientists and engineers had been busy since 2001, replicating their Soviet designed/supplied nuclear reactor, in order to produce plutonium for the Iranians.

The IAEA has since visited the site in Syria the Israelis destroyed and – as of this writing – have no reason to suppose the Israelis are anything but paranoid.

Here are excerpts from UN Security Council Resolution 487, condemning the attack on, and destruction of, Iraq's IAEA Safeguarded facilities by Israeli paranoids back in 1981;

"Fully aware of the fact that Iraq has been a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since it came into force in 1970, that, in accordance with that treaty, Iraq has accepted IAEA safeguards on all its nuclear activities, and that the agency has testified that these safeguards have been satisfactorily applied to date ...

"Strongly condemns the military attack by Israel – in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct;

"Calls upon Israel to refrain in the future from any such acts or threats thereof;

"Further considers that the said attack constitutes a serious threat to the entire IAEA safeguards regime, which is the foundation of the non-proliferation treaty."

Of course, the entire IAEA Safeguards regime – which serves as a guarantor to all signatories to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons – has been under sustained attack ever since the Cheney Cabal came to power.

In a letter of March 25, 2008 sent by the Foreign Minister of Iran to the Secretary General of the United Nations, and forwarded to the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran challenged the legality under the UN Charter of certain resolutions passed by the UN Security Council – at the insistence of the Cheney Cabal – which relate to certain resolutions improperly passed by the IAEA Board of Governors, also at the insistence of the Cheney Cabal.

In particular, on March 3, 2008, the UN Security Council – allegedly "Acting under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations" – perversely proceeded to "reaffirm" its "decision" of 23 December 2006 that Iran "shall, without further delay, suspend"

"a) all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, to be verified by the IAEA; and

"(b) work on all heavy water-related projects, including the construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water, also to be verified by the IAEA"

Which prompted the Iranians to send that March 25, letter to the Secretary General, explicating the largely successful efforts of the Cheney Cabal to not only corrupt the IAEA Board of Governors and UN Security Council, but to undermine the IAEA Statute, the NPT and UN Charter, itself.

In particular, Iran correctly notes that

"Involvement of the Security Council in the Iranian peaceful nuclear program is in full contravention with the organizational, Statutory and safeguards requirements governing the IAEA practices and procedures.

"Furthermore, the substantive and procedural legal requirements, that are necessary for engaging the Security Council in the issues raised by the Agency, have been totally ignored in this regard.

"The Security Council has never determined Iran's Nuclear Program as a threat to international peace and security under Article 39 of the UN Charter and, thus, it could not adopt any measures against the Islamic Republic of Iran under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

"The Security Council, as a UN organ created by Member States, is subject to legal requirements, and is obliged to comply with the same international normative rules that the Member States are bound to.

"The Council shall observe all international norms, in particular the UN Charter and the peremptory norms of international law, in the process of its decision making and in its taking actions.

"Needless to say that any measure adopted in contradiction to such rules and principles will be void of any legally binding effects."

Now comes a statement from the Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement – which includes Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bolivia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, et al. – wherein the Ministers

"reaffirmed the basic and inalienable right of all states" – including, by name, the Islamic Republic of Iran – to the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, "without discrimination"

"recognized the IAEA as the sole competent authority for verification of the respective safeguards obligations of [NPT] member states"

"reaffirmed the inviolability of peaceful nuclear activities," whether operational or under construction, against "attack or threat of attack," either of which "constitutes a grave violation of international law, principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and regulations of the IAEA."

Okay, the rest of the world is in Iran's corner on this issue. So, the question is – what will they do if the paranoid Israelis attack Iran and "we" are viewed as having enabled them?