by Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively for VK
The main topic for discussions is the source of information leakage about an attack on Iran from Azerbaijan. Foreign Policy, a respectable information source, published information on the topic, which was a big surprise for the Israeli military command. Foreign Policy says that one of the biggest technical problems of Israeli attack on Iran is the distance between the two states, which exceeds 1500 km, thus, requiring refueling in midair. Journalists say that the Israeli Defense Ministry decided to use Azerbaijan for the attack. Moreover, Foreign Policy says that Israeli military are studying abandoned airfields and military bases of the Soviet Army in Azerbaijan.
“We are actively monitoring what Israelis are doing in Azerbaijan and what we are not happy with what we have discovered”, Foreign Policy cites a high-ranking US military official. The source published a plan developed by the Israeli military command for the strike. According to publications, Israeli commandos will either enter Iran crossing the Azerbaijani border or via an airborne operation. Then, Israeli planes will take off at the airfield 65 km away from Baku for the air raid. Then the planes will head to Israel without need to refuel to avoid accusations against Azerbaijan.
Foreign Policy believes that Iran will be attacked a week before the US presidential elections so that Americans would not interfere in Israel’s plans. The source emphasizes that it is unaware about official agreements between Azerbaijan and Israel. There is most likely no such deal. However, Foreign Policy says that authorities of the two states have such close ties that all agreements could be made orally.
Azerbaijan and Israel denied the information in late March. Although the US continued to insist on trueness of the information and said that US President Barack Obama was the one to cause the information leakage. John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the UN, said that the publication was to ruin plans of Israel to use Azerbaijani territory for the strike, because the US administration still hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Iranian problem.
