Israeli threat to attack Iran over nuclear weapons.

Shaul Mofaz, one of Olmert's deputies, has said that Israel will attack Iran "if it continues to develop nuclear weapons" and he has hinted that any such attack would be co-ordinated with the US.

"If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it," he told the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot. "The UN sanctions are ineffective."

This is the most explicit threat yet of a possible attack on Iran and it comes after a week of talks between Israel and the US on the subject of Iran which have been described as "intense". What horrifies me is the completely casual way in which international law is cast aside as an irrelevance and the UN is simply dismissed as "ineffective".

The UN came into being to prevent the world from ever again experiencing the scourge of world wars. It is imperfect, it is sometimes infuriating, but it is infinitely preferable to the alternative.

Neo-cons and Likud-like thinkers in Israel (and lets face it, they are one and the same) seem eager to cast aside international law, or at the very least act as if they are somehow not bound by it.

And, as long as someone like Bush remains in the White House, Israel will be allowed to act with impunity here.

What worries me, as the Bush presidency limps towards the end of it's dreadful time in office, is that these comments are co-ordinated with the White House. Unable to attack Iran themselves, Bush appears to have given permission for Israel to act as a proxy.

Leaving aside the fact that there is no proof whatsoever that Iran has any intention of building a nuclear bomb - and that Israel is known to possess such weapons whilst refusing to sign the NNPT - we really are dealing with stunning hypocrisy if Israel are now to be the country to ensure that the NNPT is upheld.

What next? Will the US bomb China to prevent the death penalty?

What's important here is that the Bush administration have given the Israelis permission to issue these threats. Unable to muster support in the US for such an attack, Bush is now giving others the nod that they are free to do so if they so wish.

As his time in office drags to a close, Bush may yet be at his most dangerous. The writing is on the wall for these neo-con monsters, they suspect that McCain is not going to win, and my worry is that this might make them feel they have little to lose by doing their worst now.

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Tags: Israel, Iran, United States, Bush, NNPT