US Concerns Grow Over Possible Israeli Strike on Iran
Talk of a possible attack on Iranian nuclear facilities is again rumbling in Tehran, Jerusalem, and Washington. Israel is reported to be increasingly anxious about Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and at least one U.S. official is reported to be warning that an Israeli attack is not far off.
US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta at the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, January 5, 2012 (file photo).
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says the world is running out of time to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is reported to believe Israel could launch strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities within the next five months.
Iranian officials deny any intention to build nuclear weapons and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned Friday Iran will retaliate in full force if its nuclear facilities are attacked.
But there are differences between the U.S. and Israel over how to deal with the situation.
A 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran - the highest collective judgment of all U.S. intelligence agencies - said that while Iran was making technical advances, it had not yet committed to actually assembling nuclear weapons.
In a 2009 VOA interview, then-CIA Director Leon Panetta predicted Iran could have a nuclear bomb sometime between 2010 and 2015, but had not yet decided whether to take that final step.
“Well, our view is and our intelligence is that while they are proceeding to develop a nuclear capability in terms of power and low-grade uranium that there’s still very much a debate going on within Iran as to whether they should proceed further,” Panetta said at the time.
Iran Intelligence Revised
A revised intelligence estimate last year came to the same conclusion about Iran’s nuclear program, U.S. officials said.
“They (the Iranians) are certainly moving on that path, but we don’t believe they’ve actually made the decision to go ahead with a nuclear weapon,” James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, told a congressional committee on Tuesday.
But the view is very different in Jerusalem, where Iran’s nuclear program is seen as a threat to Israel’s very existence.
Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman, writing in the prestigious New York Times Magazine Jan. 25, quoted top officials in Jerusalem as saying that Israel could not wait much longer before striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.