LONDON: Former British foreign secretary David Owen warned on Sunday that Israel could attack Iran in the near future. In an article in The Sunday Times, he wrote that some key decision makers in Israel were convinced that it was the most suitable time to attack Iran when Bush was in office.

“Some key Israel decision makers fear unless they attack Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities in the next few months, while George W Bush is still president, there will not be another period when they can rely on the United States as being anywhere near as supportive in the aftermath of a unilateral attack,” he said.

Owen, who served as the British foreign secretary from 1977 to 1979, observed the Israel-Iran conflict would involve the whole world, economically. ìIn the past 40 years there have been few occasions when I have been more concerned about a specific conflict escalating to involve, economically, the whole world,” he said.

Owen further warned that if Iran was attacked, it would be supplied with arms by China and Russia, adding Iranís one immediate reaction would be blocking the Strait of Hormuz. ìIn the narrow strait just one oil tanker sunk would halt shipping for months,” he added.

The former diplomat is convinced that the Revolutionary Guards of Iran are committed to a war against Israel and prepared to take on the rest of the world. “They have good equipment and operate from the land, sea and air. They will be suicide soldiers, seamen and airmen,” he said. Owen said that after Israel attacked Iran, the American military would be bound to follow Bush’s orders. “The experience of Georgia has given an amber, if not a green light to Israel and only Bush can switch that to red,” he said.

Owen advised Bush to publicly warn Israel that the United States will use its air power to prevent it bombing Iran, while announcing that he was sending Rice to Tehran to start negotiating a grand bargain whereby all sanctions would be lifted if Iran forgoes the nuclear weapons option.