Former
German
Foreign
Minister
Joschka
Fischer says
Israel is
planning to
attack Iran
in the near
future over
its nuclear
program.
He wrote a
piece that
appeared in
today's
Daily Star,
an
English-language
Lebanese
newspaper,
arguing that
President
Bush's
recent visit
to the
Middle East
was a
precursor to
a war
against
Iran.
"The Middle
East is
drifting
toward a new
great
confrontation
in 2008.
Iran must
understand
that without
a diplomatic
solution in
the coming
months, a
dangerous
military
conflict is
very likely
to erupt. It
is high time
for serious
negotiations
to begin,"
he said.
Fischer said
Bush's
speech
during his
address to
the Israeli
Knesset, or
parliament,
this month
indicated a
coming
Israeli-US
attack on
Iran's
nuclear
program.
"He (Bush)
seemed to be
planning,
together
with Israel,
to end the
Iranian
nuclear
program --
and to do so
by military,
rather than
by
diplomatic,
means....
Although it
is
acknowledged
in Israel
that an
attack on
Iran's
nuclear
facilities
would
involve
grave and
hard-to-assess
risks, the
choice
between
acceptance
of a nuclear
Iran and an
attempt at
its military
destruction,
with all the
attendant
consequences,
is clear.
Israel won't
stand by and
wait for
matters to
take their
course,"
Fischer
said.
Fischer was
German's top
diplomat
from 1998 to
2005 and is
a visiting
scholar at
the Woodrow
Wilson
International
Center for
Scholars in
Washington,
D.C.