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英デイリー・テレグラフ紙（6月24日付）が、イスラエルのイラン攻撃が、アメリカ大統領選挙が行われる11月4日から来年1月20日の新大統領就任までの間に行われるであろうとの予測を、ジョン・ボルトン（保守強硬派）からのインタビューとして掲載した。ボルトンの予測記事は、「フォーリン・アフェアーズ」でも短く取り上げられている。
Israel 'will attack Iran' before new US president sworn in, John Bolton predicts
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2182070/Israel-%27will-attack-Iran%27-before-new-US-president-sworn-in%2C-John-Bolton-predicts.html
http://www.foreignaffairsj.co.jp/essay/webex/0807_israel_the_west_and_nuclear_iran.htm
ボルトンでなくとも、イスラエル当局が、イラン攻撃をアメリカ大統領選挙後の日程を睨んで計画していることは推測されるが、著名なネオコンであるウィリアム・クリストルの予測を、ボルトンは取り上げている。
Ｗ．クリストルは、大統領選挙でのオバマの勝利は、ブッシュにイラン攻撃を促す事になるだろうと述べ、反対に、もしブッシュが次期大統領になるのはマケインだと考えているとすれば、マケインにイランの核開発問題を任せるのが適切だと考えていると述べている。
William Kristol, a prominent neo-conservative, told Fox News on Sunday that an Obama victory could prompt Mr Bush to launch attacks against Iran. "If the president thought John McCain was going to be the next president, he would think it more appropriate to let the next president make that decision than do it on his way out," he said.
ボルトンの予測記事は、現時点で勝算の高いオバマが勝つことを想定し、Ｗ．クリストルの予測に時間的日程を組み込んだものだ。イスラエルによるイラン攻撃は、大統領選挙が行われる11月4日から来年1月20日の新大統領就任までの間と彼は述べるが、イスラエルがブッシュ政権の起動力を使うためには、オバマ当選直後でも遅いくらいだ。
ボルトンは、オバマの大統領選挙での勝利は、彼がとる外交政策によって、イスラエルの軍事行動は阻害を受けるとイスラエル人は警戒していると述べている。
更にマケインのイラン政策は、ブッシュ政権のそれよりかなり現実的であることを述べ、マケインのイラン政策をボルトンは支持している。
また、イスラエルがイラン攻撃を急ぐ理由に、ロシアの防空ミサイル・システムの供給により、イランが核施設などへの防衛力を増強しているぺースが速まっている事を挙げている。
2005年11月にイランとロシアで締結した協定に基づき供給が始まった、ロシアの防空ミサイル・システムのイランへの供給は、この先ますます、イスラエルの軍事力を限定的なものにする。そこで同盟国アメリカの参戦が不可欠なのだが、ロシアとアメリカの防空ミサイル・システムの戦いは、実戦レベルでのテストは行われたことはない。
但し、ワシントンの日高義樹氏の2,3年前の著作に寄れば、アメリカの通信兵器は、米中戦争が仮に行われた場合、極初期段階で中国軍の通信ミサイル・システムなどを完全にシステム・ダウンさせるという。
ライス米国務長官はイランに対し、「われわれは同盟国を防衛する義務を負っており、それを遂行する意志がある」、「われわれは米国や同盟国の権益を守る」と警告している。（7月10日 時事通信）
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080710-00000100-jij-int
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Israel 'will attack Iran' before new US president sworn in, John Bolton predicts
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 9:50AM BST 24/06/2008
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.
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.
"The Israelis have one eye on the calendar because of the pace at which the Iranians are proceeding both to develop their nuclear weapons capability and to do things like increase their defences by buying new Russian anti-aircraft systems and further harden the nuclear installations .
"They're also obviously looking at the American election calendar. My judgement is they would not want to do anything before our election because there's no telling what impact it could have on the election."
But waiting for either Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, or his Republican opponent John McCain to be installed in the White House could preclude military action happening for the next four years or at least delay it.
"An Obama victory would rule out military action by the Israelis because they would fear the consequences given the approach Obama has taken to foreign policy," said Mr Bolton, who was Mr Bush's ambassador to the UN from 2005 to 2006.
"With McCain they might still be looking at a delay. Given that time is on Iran's side, I think the argument for military action is sooner rather than later absent some other development."
The Iran policy of Mr McCain, whom Mr Bolton supports, was "much more realistic than the Bush administration's stance".
Mr Obama has said he will open high-level talks with Iran "without preconditions" while Mr McCain views attacking Iran as a lesser evil than allowing Iran to become a nuclear power.
William Kristol, a prominent neo-conservative, told Fox News on Sunday that an Obama victory could prompt Mr Bush to launch attacks against Iran. "If the president thought John McCain was going to be the next president, he would think it more appropriate to let the next president make that decision than do it on his way out," he said.
Last week, Israeli jets carried out a long-range exercise over the Mediterranean that American intelligence officials concluded was practice for air strikes against Iran. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said this was an act of "psychological warfare" that would be futile.
"They do not have the capacity to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran. They [Israel] have a number of domestic crises and they want to extrapolate it to cover others. Sometimes they come up with these empty slogans."
He added that Tehran would deliver a "devastating" response to any attack.
On Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, said military action against Iran would turn the Middle East into a "fireball" and accelerate Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Bolton, however, dismissed such sentiments as scaremongering. "The key point would be for the Israelis to break Iran's control over the nuclear fuel cycle and that could be accomplished for example by destroying the uranium conversion facility at Esfahan or the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.
"That doesn't end the problem but it buys time during which a more permanent solution might be found.... How long? That would be hard to say. Depends on the extent of the destruction."
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