Growing concern Israel may strike Iran this spring
There is growing concern about an Israeli military strike against Iran to stop it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is quoted as saying it is likely Israel will launch the attack this spring. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that Panetta believes specifically that there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June.
That quote came from columnist David Ignatius, writing shortly after he completed a trans-Atlantic flight with the defense secretary. Panetta, on Thursday, did not dispute it.
He noted that Israel has stated publicly that it is considering military action against Iran. He said the U.S. has "indicated our concerns."
As Panetta explained in an interview with "60 Minutes" an Israeli attack would almost certainly have consequences for the U.S.
"The United States could be targeted as a result of that," Panetta said. "We would get blame, whether they like it or not. We would get blame as to being involved."
Adding to U.S. concerns were a long day of strident warnings by Israeli officials at an international strategy conference near Tel Aviv about the dangers posed by Iran. At the conference, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that the world is increasingly ready to consider a military strike against Iran if economic sanctions don't halt Tehran's suspected nuclear program.
Yet Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg seemed ill at ease Thursday about a possible military conflict with Iran.
Clegg was quoted as telling The House Magazine, a weekly British political journal, that he feared Israel could carry out a pre-emptive strike on Iran amid suspicion in the West that Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
Speaking at the aforementioned strategy conference, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday warned Israel that the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program must be resolved peacefully.
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Clegg seems to concur that a peaceful solution is preferable, saying in the interview that Britain had been attempting to demonstrate "that there are very tough things we can do which are not military steps in order to place pressure on Iran."
Still, officials gathered at the Israeli strategy conference asserted that Iran has already produced enough enriched uranium to eventually build four rudimentary nuclear bombs and — in what would be an explosive new twist — was even developing missiles capable of reaching the United States.
In perhaps the most startling instance of saber-rattling, Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon, who heads the strategic affairs ministry and is a former commander of the military, said all of Iran's nuclear installations are vulnerable to military strikes.
Yaalon appeared to contradict assessments of foreign experts and Israeli defense officials that it would be difficult to strike sensitive Iranian nuclear targets hidden dozens of yards below ground.
Much of the attention at the conference focused on the heightened sanctions imposed on Iran by Europe and the United States.
Speaking of the U.S., the White House and congressional leaders have so far distanced themselves from a military solution to the Iranian nuclear problem.
A Senate panel is backing sweeping new penalties on Iran with lawmakers arguing the economic pressure will undercut Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The Banking Committee approved the legislation Thursday by voice vote in a rare instance of bipartisanship. Democrats and Republicans said current U.S. and international penalties have hurt Iran financially, with the value of its currency plummeting. They said ratcheting up the sanctions would force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.
The bill would target Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and companies involved in joint energy and uranium mining ventures with Tehran. It also would penalize companies and individuals that supply Iran with weapons that could be used against their citizens, such as rubber bullets.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that officials in Israel — all of whom spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss Iran — were concerned that the measures, while welcome, were constraining Israel in its ability to act because the world expected the effort to be given a chance.
Barak appeared to confirm this, suggesting that the sanctions needed to be given a chance to work. But he also said there was a growing sense around the world that failure would in effect justify military action.
"There is no argument about the intolerable danger a nuclear Iran (would pose) to the future of the Middle East, the security of Israel and to the economic and security stability of the entire world," Barak said.
"Today as opposed to in the past, there is a wide global understanding that Iran must be prevented from becoming nuclear and no option should be taken off the table... Today as opposed to in the past, there is wide world understanding that in the event that sanctions won't reach the intended result of stopping the military nuclear program, there will be need to consider action."
Israel has been a leading voice in calls to curb Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, and the latest revelations could help generate further international support for moves against the Iranian regime. At the same time, there is growing international concern about a possible Israeli rogue attack on Iranian nuclear installations.
Iran denies it's trying to develop nuclear weapons, insisting it seeks nuclear power for nonmilitary uses. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that some of Iran's alleged experiments can have no purpose other than developing nuclear weapons.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, who gave the final speech at the Herzliya conference, has said it's the responsibility of Iran to prove it is not pursuing nuclear weapons. "I believe they have not yet done so," he said after a meeting with Israel's prime minister in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
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That kind of threat and the fact we had nothing but problems with Iran, we need to take action to protect part of our true culture! The US protects the Africans and the Mexicans, what about the Jewish culture???
Doesn't all faith stated defend yourself, what about all the crap the IRAN does to their women and continue to post other inside threats. YES, the Israel is tired of the BIG BULLY...I do not blame them...beat that mad dog before it enters your house...ISRAEL do what you must to defend yourself from that mad dog!
Israel was created as it is today by PURCHASING swaplands and desert out of the arabs living there under British rule. By the way this very arabs supported the nazis at the time. After 1967 Israel has no choice but to become a military power, and it STILL is the ONLY REAL democracy in the Middle East.
US supports Israel against Iran for a simple reason: Iran is the enemy. Over the last 20 years every terrorist organization in the Midle East is or have been supported by Iran, who by the way, has no rights whatsoever to close the strait, I was never theirs.
Sanction will never stop such religious nuts, only the might of both US and Israel and the idea that they can become shark caca as Bin Laden frights the allatolhas.
Go for iT. NO NEGOTIATION WITH TERRORISTS!!!!!!!
This smells like that.
I know the chickenhawks have a few trillion burning a hole in their pockets. But no willingness to pay for it.
Nice.
Who on God's earth wants to die for isreal so they can steal all the palestinian's land?
Did we say in the Constitution we'd protect isreal? Is Israel even an official ally (treaty?)?
You are truely a part of mass-misinformed! But do make quite a few laugh in derision....
Germany lives in peace and prosperious tranquility with Poland today because they negotiated(look it up).
Land seized by war is not recognized by international law. This includes your disingenious mention of "civil war". 180 countries agree, except the us and the Marshall islands. Isreal is a kleptomaniac when itcomes to Palestinian land.
All in all your observations do not hold. They lack knowledge and objectivity most likely the result of lacking education.
Shalom