Israel 'will attack Iran' before new US president sworn in, John Bolton predicts
John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in.
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 9:50AM BST 24 Jun 2008
Bolton: 'the argument for military action is sooner rather than later' Photo: PA
The Arab world would be "pleased" by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
"It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations but no action," he said.
Mr Bolton, an unflinching hawk who proposes military action to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, bemoaned what he sees as a lack of will by the Bush administration to itself contemplate military strikes.
"It's clear that the administration has essentially given up that possibility," he said. "I don't think it's serious any more. If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I thought it was a real possibility. I just don't think it's in the cards."
Israel, however, still had a determination to prevent a nuclear Iran, he argued. The "optimal window" for strikes would be between the November 4 election and the inauguration on January 20, 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2182070/Israel-'will-attack-Iran'-before-new-US-president-sworn-in,-John-Bolton-predicts.html
