[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Er, Iran doesn't actually have a nuclear plant, they've got some enrichment facilities.

As for Israel bombing it, for one thing there are a number of them (Osirak was six aircraft on one site, five of which hit it), for another they're (post-Osirak) obviously not sitting there on the surface saying 'Bomb Me', they're underground and thirdly Israel didn't have long-range bombing aircraft back in 2003. Their defence needs have hitherto been pretty exclusively based on a radius of a few hundred miles (they don't have much air-to-air refuelling for the same reason). They do now have F-16I and F-15I bombers which can reach Iran, but still only about the western half.

Iran isn't so much interested in the Euro as in China and India, which are very hungry for gas and oil and not too bothered with defending Israel. Holding stuff in Euros, however, is just sensible policy at the moment. I wish we were in it, frankly, with trips to Ireland and Greece coming up.

I seem to remember a while ago it being made public that Israel purchased a consignment of US Bunker Busters, which short of a nuke would be the only weapon capable of destroying an hardened under-ground facility. I haven't heard much since then on the subject, but it would not surprise me if the Israeli's with a tacit nod from Washington, were to launch a strike before the Bush administration leave power.