Brezinski urges Obama to shoot down Israeli jets

Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has urged US President Barack Obama to make it clear that if the IAF tries to launch an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities via Iraqi airspace, the US Air Force will shoot down the Israeli jets.

"We are not exactly impotent little babies," Brzezinski told The Daily Beast in an interview published Sunday. "They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? ... We have to be serious about denying them that right.

That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a 'Liberty' in reverse."

The USS Liberty was a US Navy technical research ship accidentally struck by the IAF on the fourth day of the Six Day War, after being misidentified as an Egyptian warship.

Brzezinski, who was former president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, endorsed Barack Obama's presidential campaign. However, he has no role in the current administration.

Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN aired on Sunday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that President Shimon Peres had assured him that Israel was not planning a military strike on Iran.

"When he visited me in Sochi, Israeli President Peres said something important for us all: 'Israel does not plan to launch any strikes on Iran, we are a peaceful country and we will not do this'," Medvedev said.

On Thursday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted as saying that Iran does not constitute an existential threat against Israel.

"I am not among those who believe Iran is an existential issue for Israel," he told Yedioth Aharonot. "Israel is strong, I don't see anyone who could pose an existential threat."

Source: Jpost