RAMALLAH, West Bank, 25 February 2007 — The Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh yesterday denied a British newspaper report that Israel was in negotiations with the United States to secure an “air corridor” over Iraq should an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities become necessary.

The report, published yesterday by the Daily Telegraph, cited a senior Israeli defense official as saying talks are currently under way between the two countries over the possibility of Israel deciding to take unilateral action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues that are crucially important,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space. If we don’t sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli warplanes start shooting at each other,” he said.

Israel Radio quoted Sneh as saying: “International authorities, particularly in the West, who want to avoid direct involvement with Iran, are anxious to spread the story that we will strike Iran.”

“Those who do not want to work politically, diplomatically and economically are diverting attention to the operation that we are said to be conducting,” he said . “It is convenient for them to roll the ball onto the Israeli court,” Sneh said.

The British newspaper report claimed that Israel plans to conduct surgical airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, although it did not specify which installments Israel would strike .

In the event that Israel should target Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israeli warplanes would have to fly across Iraq to reach their targets, for which they need authorization from the US Department of Defense, the report said.

The Telegraph said that contingency planning has accelerated significantly since the beginning of the year in light of Mossad (Israeli external intelligence agency) estimates that Iran could have the necessary amount of fissile material to produce a nuclear weapon by 2009. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced last week that Meir Dagan, head of Mossad and a leading expert on Iran, would postpone his retirement until the end of 2007. Olmert also handed over coordination of Israeli military aspects of Iran’s nuclear file to Israeli Air Force Cmdr. Eliezer Shkedy.

Iran yesterday played down the possibility of US military action against its nuclear program after a veiled threat from Vice President Dick Cheney but said it was prepared for all possible scenarios. “We do not see that the United States is in a position to impose another crisis in the region on its tax payers,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Tehran

— Additional input from agencies