U.S. blocked Israel from attack on Iran

WASHINGTON – President Bush last year rejected an Israeli request to provide sophisticated, deep-penetration bombs to attack Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment facilities, Pentagon officials said Saturday.

The administration also rebuffed Israel’s plan to fly through U.S.-controlled Iraqi airspace to reach the Iranian site, officials said. The Israelis had not proposed a specific date for an attack, and it was not clear how far along the planning was when the requests were made, officials said.

The Israeli requests were first reported on the New York Times Web site Saturday. The Times also said that President Bush, seeking to deflect the Israelis and to soften his refusal, told the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he had authorized a new covert action program to sabotage Iran’s uranium enrichment program. The report quoted U.S. officials as saying that some actions had been taken as part of what it described as an ongoing covert program, but that they had not seriously affected Iranian operations. Israel and the United States and principal European allies have charged that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran has denied.

Officials with the Israeli Embassy and the CIA declined to comment Saturday night. A White House spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Some factions within the Bush administration have long advocated a U.S. military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, but military leaders and others have argued against it on the grounds that it could endanger U.S. troops in the region and spark a broader war in the Middle East, and that it would probably only temporarily set back Iran’s efforts.