A top Greek air force official has revealed that Greece participated in two major military exercises over the Mediterranean Sea with Israel in recent weeks as test runs for possible long-range strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.
News of a secret exercise was broken by the New York Times last Friday, citing U.S. officials as saying that more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighter jets took part in preparation for long-range strikes in the first week of June.
But in Athens, an official with the Greek air force's central command confirmed to Agence France-Presse the substance of the U.S. media report, while stating that it had taken part in not one, but two "joint training exercises" with Israel off the Mediterranean island of Crete.
The manouvers, code-named "Glorious Spartan 08," took place on May 28 and June 12, and consisted of aerial exercises and knowledge exchange, said the Greek source who requested anonymity.
U.N. atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei responded to the U.S. media report by warning that an attack on Iran would turn the region into a fireball and that he would resign as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"A military strike [against Iran] would in my opinion be worse than anything else.... It would transform the Middle East region into a ball of fire," ElBaradei said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television.
ElBaradei said any attack would simply harden Iran's position in its row with the West over its nuclear program, which he said did not pose an "imminent risk" of proliferation given the current status of the program.
"A military strike would spark the launch of an emergency program to make atomic weapons, with the support of all Iranians, including those living abroad," he said.
But Tehran discounts the threat of an Israeli strike by flatly rejected it as "impossible."
The West fears that Tehran could use uranium enrichment to make an atomic bomb although Tehran insists it only wants nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes.
Also in Tehran Monday an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed that the president had been the target of an assassination plot at the U.N. food summit in Rome earlier this month.
Ahmadinejad last week himself spoke of a purported murder plot in Iraq in March – an announcement greeted with astonishment in some sections of the local press – but this is the first time a conspiracy has been linked to his Italy trip.
"The actions of the president over the three previous years have endangered the illegitimate interests of many people in Iran and outside," said the aide, Ali Zabihi, according to the Fars news agency.
"That is why some people have thought of eliminating or assassinating the president," added Zabihi, who was described as Ahmadinejad's adviser for human resources.
"But the plots to assassinate the president in Iraq and at the Food and Agriculture Organization conference failed, thanks to God," he said.
Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their travel plans.
According to Zabihi, the plots were "in line with the order given by [U.S. President George W.] Bush to kill Iranian leaders." He did not give further details.
Some moderate newspapers have challenged the validity of the president's allegations of an attempt on his life during the trip to Iraq, the first ever by an Iranian president.
"Why did the president wait three-and-a-half months before revealing such a thing?" asked the reformist daily Etemad Melli.
"As Mr. Ahmadinejad went to New York [for the U.N. General Assembly] wouldn't it have been simpler for the Americans to kidnap him on their own soil?" it noted.
The moderate daily Kargozaran wondered why no protest had been lodged with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran that looks after U.S. interests in the absence of an American mission.
"If the president's statements are not confirmed ... his attention should be drawn to the damaging consequences for the long-term interests of the country of using such means of propaganda," it added.
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