While Israel is unlikely ever to use its nuclear strike capability pre-emptively on Iran, Israeli military planners have long been considering options for conventional strikes if Teheran continues to defy diplomatic pressure. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime minister, prefers to emphasise Israel's support for the multinational diplomatic effort, although his planners have already spent years considering what to do if the diplomatic track fails.
Israel resorted to force in 1981 to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak with conventional bombs. Nevertheless, Israeli military intelligence recognizes that an attack on Iran would be more complex, as it presents significant logistic problems for refuelling military aircraft. Moreover, while most of Saddam's nuclear programme was located in the one Osirak facility, the Iranians have spread theirs to at least a dozen sites, some of which are hidden in tunnel systems built under mountains.