Bolton: US 'Very Concerned' Israel Might Attack Iran

The Associated Press, Jerusalem Post:

An American envoy repeated US allegations Monday about an Iranian nuclear weapons program and said Israel might attack Iran's nuclear sites because the Jewish state has "a history" of such actions.

John Bolton, the State Department's top international security official, was referring to Israel's 1981 bombing raid on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.

"The vice president said we're very concerned that this might happen," Bolton said, referring to a recent statement by US Vice President Dick Cheney. ...

Bolton is on the final stop of a three-country Persian Gulf tour to coordinate policies in light of the perceived threat of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Speaking to a group of reporters during a one-day visit to Abu Dhabi, he said the United States was ready to dismantle Iran's nuclear assets and store them at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. ...

Bolton... repeated earlier statements by US President George W. Bush that Washington doesn't rule out its own military strikes on Iran but prefers to halt any weapons program in Tehran using diplomacy.

"We never rule any option out, but we're trying to resolve this diplomatically," he said.