Israeli warplanes this week practiced long-range missions including mid-air refueling in what local media said was a signal to archfoe Iran.
The Israeli air force on Thursday posted pictures and video of the exercise on its website, without saying where or when it passed off.
But the accompanying text gave what the net version of Haaretz daily called “the heaviest of hints concerning the goal of the exercise…a possible attack on Iran.”
Haaretz said the drill happened with the Greek air force.
Israel says that until Iran halts what the Jewish State and its US ally say is a covert nuclear arms program, all options remain at the table, including an army strike.
“When one speaks of ‘all options at the table’ it is understood that one is speaking concerning the military option,” the air force website said Thursday.
“The air force, the long arm of the Israel Defence Forces, is accountable for engaging in that option.”
It quoted an officer who took part within the exercise as saying there have been special challenges in planning and executing flights “far from home” citing “weather conditions and unfamiliar ground together with possible threats along the style.”
It went on, however, to claim that the newest exercise was “no different to exercises performed lately.”
Israeli, Greek and US warships staged a two-week Mediterranean naval exercise in March.
For several years, Israel and america applied military manoeuvres with Turkey, but in September 2011 Ankara expelled Israel’s ambassador and suspended military cooperation with the Jewish state.
Once-warm ties reached a low point after Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound Turkish aid flotilla within the Mediterranean in May 2010, killing nine Turks on board.
Relations with traditionally pro-Arab Greece were warming meanwhile, with Israel joining it in naval and air exercises.
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