“Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency is working with Saudi officials on contingency plans for a possible attack on Iran if its nuclear programme is not significantly curbed in a deal that could be signed in Geneva this week,” the British newspaper The Sunday Times reported .

The report added that the Saudi and Israeli officials are convinced that the international talks to place limits on Tehran’s nuclear program “amount to appeasement and will do little to slow its development.”

“As part of the growing co-operation, Riyadh is understood already to have given the go-ahead for Israeli planes to use its airspace in the event of an attack on Iran,” it said.

Iran has repeatedly warned that it will retaliate with its utmost power against any attack on its soil.

According to the report, Riyadh and Tel Aviv have both united in worry that the West may come to terms with Iran, easing anti-Iran sanctions and allowing Tehran to continue its nuclear program.

“The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs,” an unnamed diplomatic source told the paper.

Recently, Saudi Arabia’s spy chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Tamir Pardo, reportedly have held a secret meeting in Jordan’s Aqaba city.

The likelihood of an agreement between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council- the US, Britain, China, France and Russia- plus Germany has enraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has denounced a possible agreement with Iran as a “historic blunder.”

Israel began its lobbying efforts after it found out that the latest talks in Geneva were coming close to an agreement between Iran and the P5+1.

The two sides did not reach an agreement in the talks, but stressed that significant progress had been made and expressed optimism about the prospect of a possible deal in the future talks set for November 20 in Geneva.

HH/HH