'Israeli military can be swept aside by Iran'

Tehran: In case of a possible military strike on Iran by Israel, Tehran will be able to rapidly rout the Israeli military as it has already been hit by a high rate of internal dissent, an American military analyst has said.

In an article published on the website of Iran's state-run Press TV, Gordon Duff, a senior editor at Veterans Today, an American military and foreign affairs journal, said that in case of an attack, the Israeli army will be "easily swept aside" by the Iranians.

This was because Israel "has no capability of operating logistically and is already faced with a population that is asking for an end to compulsory military service", the report said.

"Young Israelis say they are tired of hearing the continual fear mongering and no longer find any of the 'threats' the Likudist regime harps about credible," the writer said.

The "Likudist regime" referred to the government of the Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said that up to 50 per cent of Israeli youth are refusing military service of which "ultra-orthodox" Jews are already exempt.

"In an interview with a former US military attache to Israel, I was told that only a few units of the Israeli army are 'first-rate' with the rest much less capable," Duff said.

He said that due to its fear of Iran, Israel may resort to any strategy to get other countries engaged in a war against Tehran.

"Israel is likely to try to precipitate a war on Iran by staging an attack on the US, its forces in the Persian Gulf region or on a European NATO target, most likely the London Olympics. There has been highly credible information that an attack on the Olympics is planned," he said.

After attacking the US ships in the Persian Gulf or the London Olympics, Israel will use its powerful lobby in the US and international media to blame Iran for what had happened, he said.

"With world economies on the edge of general collapse, any major conflict, particularly one that could draw in China or, worse still, present the US in the role of aggressor and Israeli military surrogate again, would be historically unsustainable," the analyst wrote.