Israel denied a British newspaper report that it had authorized a plan to attack Iran’s nuclear sites. “This is ridiculous,” Deputy Premier Ehud Olmert told reporters when asked about the Sunday Times report that Israeli forces had been put on standby for a strike on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities in March. But another official said that Israel, while endorsing foreign diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program, would not rule out military action as a last resort. “It would not be correct for a country that faces such a threat to deny that it would ever consider another option,” Amos Gilad, director of strategy planning in the Defense Ministry, told Israel Radio. Israel has called on Iran to be brought up before the U.N. Security Council for sanctions before next March, because Israel fears that the Iranians are close to attaining the know-how to build nuclear weapons alone.
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