- TEL AVIV - The United States
has told Israel that it will attack Iraq before the end of November.
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- Israeli military sources said a a senior U.S. military
visited Israel earlier this week and toured facilities where the U.S. military
has prepositioned equipment and weapons for an emergency in the Middle
East.
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- The sources quoted a visiting U.S. general who heads
army logistics as saying that Washington intends to strike the regime of
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by late November.
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- The Israeli sources said the two countries discussed
Israel's role in any U.S. military attack, Middle East Newsline reported.
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- The general was quoted as saying that Washington's aim
is to topple the Saddam regime. The general was not named.
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- In joint military discussions earlier this summer, Pentagon
officials said Iraq would be only the first stop in the U.S. war on terror,
an Israeli parliamentarian said.
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- Yuval Steinetz, chairman of the Knesset subcommittee
on military doctrine, said he held talks with senior Pentagon officials
in June regarding Washington's vision of a post-Saddam Middle East. Steinetz
said Washington envisions a new order in the Middle East after Saddam is
toppled and a democratic regime is installed.
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- "Iraq is the key but not the last stop [in the U.S.
effort]," Steinetz said. "It is the first stop. After that there
will be massive [U.S.] pressure on Syria and Iran to halt weapons of mass
destruction programs and Syria's occupation of Lebanon."
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- U.S. military sources and analysts said Washington has
sent tens of thousands of soldiers and military personnel to Gulf Arab
states, Central and South Asia and the Levant. They said the force includes
at least 1,000 military planners who have prepared for a rapid airlift
of forces in case Washington decides on a war against Iraq.
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- Israeli officials have confirmed that both military and
civilian officials from Israel and the United States have been discussing
Washington's plans to attack Iraq. They said the talks have included the
Bush administration's vision of a post-war Iraq and U.S. policy in the
Middle East.
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- The military talks, the officials said, have focused
largely on Israel's response to any Iraqi missile or air strike on the
Jewish state. They said Israel and the United States have reviewed a series
of scenarios of whether and how Israel would react to an Iraqi conventional
or nonconventional missile strike.
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- Israeli military sources said the level of Israel's response
would depend on the number of casualties and damage caused by any Iraqi
strike.
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- The sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told
the Bush administration that it would not pledge any policy of restraint
as that during the 1991 Gulf war.
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