A senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks during a meeting in London that other senior officials in Tehran are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel.

The preemptive strike would be an attempt to destroy Israel’s capability of carrying out an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Using force against Israel would force the Israelis on the defense, while they are thinking about going on the offense, and haven’t had to wage a purely defense war in decades.

Dr. Seyed G. Safavi told the foreign diplomats that Tehran was seriously considering such a preemptive attack, but that the idea had not been incorporated into Iran’s foreign policy yet, the highly reliable Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Thursday.

Safavi said a small, experienced group of officials is lobbying for a preemptive strike against Israel. “The recent Israeli declarations and harsh rhetoric on a strike against Iran put ammunition in these individuals’ hands,” he was reported as saying.

The news comes shortly after Senator Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s running mate, made headlines by saying that if Obama would win, he would be tested immediately by a ‘major international crisis.’ Although he did not say what country he thought would be likely to cause such a crisis, the general consensus was that it would be either Iran or Russia.

In addition to Biden’s comments, the FBI would start screening potential administration officials earlier than they did before; before the presidential elections rather than after.

Liberal blogger Taylor Marsh immediately opined earlier today that this story was most probably planted by either George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. Such a remark should, of course, be expected from a highly partisan liberal blogger like Mrs. Taylor, but it is still quite interesting to see that partisan often prefer ignoring potential crisis, instead of facing (potential) reality. No one, except for the Iranian official(s) involved know whether the story is correct; but those who analyse politics should at least assume it could be correct, and write and act accordingly.

To me, a preemptive Iranian strike against Israel does not sound all that far-fetched. If Iran is sure that Israel will carry out airstrikes against its nuclear plants, it would probably be wise for the Iranians to strike when those plants are still in tact. Additionally, they know that Arab leaders will feel severe pressure to help Iran out, and to carry out strikes against Israel as well (especially if Israel strikes back when Iran attacks). It would instantly create a highly explosive situation in the Middle East, with 80% of Arab Sunnis forgetting that Iran is a Shiite country and calling on their own government to join Iran against the ‘evil Zionists.’

It would be a highly risky move, but when Tehran believes that the only choice they have is to either let Israel destroy their nuclear facilities, or to strike against Israel in stead, hoping that other countries in the Middle East come to its aide, it becomes considerably less easy to dismiss the plan too easily.