WASHINGTON Ñ Israeli sources said the Bush administration has pledged to provide a general
warning of one week of any U.S. military offensive. The warning would be
specific three days before the war.
Washington has also pledged that the United States would make the
tracking and destruction of Iraqi Scud-class missiles in western Iraq a
priority. Iraq is believed to have up to 80 Al Hussein medium-range
missiles.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met President
George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss prospective
scenarios regarding a U.S.-led war against Iraq and received pledges of
advance warning of any U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Bush and Sharon also discussed the Middle East after the fall of the regime of Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein, Middle East Newsline reported.
Israel hopes the United States will offer to deploy the
PAC-3 missile defense system in the Jewish state.
So far, officials said, the United States has offered Israel the older
PAC-2 system. The system, introduced in 1990, has been improved over the
last decade but has not been seen as highly effective.
The PAC-3 has been developed but did not undergo full production.
Officials said the PAC-3 has been deployed by unspecified U.S. Army units.
"I mentioned the Patriot 3, which has recently been fielded," Gen.
Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional
hearing last month.
"We know during Desert Storm we had about a 50 percent
chance of hitting the incoming warhead. Much has improved now with the
Patriot 3, designed specifically for that kind of threat."
The PAC-3 issue was discussed in Washington during the visit by Sharon to Washington.
Officials said the PAC-3 will not be ready for export until the middle
of this decade. But Israel hopes the Bush administration will approve the
emergency deployment of the PAC-3 in Israel to ensure that it will be
protected from Iraq's Al Hussein missiles.
The PAC-3, with a range of up to 50 kilometers, would provide lower-tier
defense against Iraqi missiles that pentrate Israel's Arrow-2 missile
shield. The Arrow-2 is meant to intercept incoming missiles in the mid-tier.
"If Iraq were to attack, I am sure the prime minister will respond,"
Bush told a news conference after his meeting with Sharon. "He's got a
desire to defend himself."
