New report: Obama threatened to shoot down Israeli jets if they attack Iran
President Obama threatened to shoot down Israeli planes in 2014 if they were sent to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, according to reports by a Kuwaiti newspaper.
According to Al-Jarida, the Netanyahu government took the decision to strike Iran some time in 2014 soon after Israel had discovered the United States and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran’s nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement in that regard behind Israel’s back.
The White House forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the planned attack.
State Dept photo John Kerry and Benjamin Netanyahu, April 2013
An Israeli minister on good relations with the Obama administration reportedly tipped Secretary of State John Kerry to the plan and that Obama vowed to shoot down the planes when they crossed over U.S.-controlled airspace in Iraq.
Al-Jarida quoted “well-placed” sources saying that Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon and then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman made the plans for airstrikes after consulting top commanders.
An Israeli minister on good relations with the Obama administration reportedly tipped Secretary of State John Kerry to the plan and that Obama vowed to shoot down the planes when they crossed over U.S.-controlled airspace in Iraq.
Al-Jarida quoted “well-placed” sources saying that Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon and then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman made the plans for airstrikes after consulting top commanders.
Former US diplomat Zbigniew Brzezinski, who enthusiastically campaigned forObama in 2008, called on him to shoot down Israeli planes if they attack Iran. “They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?” said the former national security advisor to former President Jimmy Carter in an interview with the Daily Beast.
“We have to be serious about denying them that right,” he said. “If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a ‘Liberty’ in reverse.’”
Benjamin Netanyahu photo/ donkey hotey
