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Allegations of Israeli Plan to Attack Iran from Georgia

Juan Cole 09/05/2008

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This story has been around for a week or so, alleging that Israel was planning to strike at Iran from Georgia.

Arnaud de Borchgrave put it more cautiously, that the Israelis thought of their jets in Georgia as useful in case they decided to do a preemptive strike on Iran.

More recently, deputy speaker of the Russian parliament, Sergei Markov, seems to have alleged an even more aggressive plan on Israel’s part.

Debka also looks at the issue.

Personally, I don’t understand how this could work. You’d have to fly over Armenia, which is an ally of Iran and would not permit it. Or over Turkey, which is out of the question. Or over Azerbaijan, which I also don’t think would permit it. Surely both the small Caucasian states have anti-aircraft batteries and some jets. Turkey is a major military power in the region.

And then Georgia is not so far from Iran, which has 12 times its population, and could wreak a horrible revenge.

The only way Iran could be forestalled would be if Georgia was admitted to NATO first so that an attack on one would then be an attack on all. But NATO would not approve of Georgia lending its military facilities to a non-member for military aggression.

Just makes no sense to me. Maybe Israeli aircraft could do some kind of surveillance on Iran from Georgia? Or Borchgrave’s idea of a contingency plan for a preemptive strike if war started brewing is plausible. Israel using Georgia as a base for attacking a third country, I don’t think so.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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