Israel, US clash over Iran solution
A senior Israeli military official says Washington and Tel Aviv are at odds over how to deal with Iran over its uranium enrichment.
While the UN nuclear watchdog admits there is no link between the use of nuclear material and the 'alleged studies' of weaponization attributed to Iran, the West alleges that Tehran is pursuing a military nuclear program.
Israel, believed to be the possessor of the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, has ratcheted up its go-to-war rhetoric against Iran, threatening to unilaterally strike the country’s nuclear sites if Tehran continues with its uranium enrichment.
Iran cites diplomacy as the only means acceptable in clarifying the nature of its nuclear activities, but Tel Aviv continues to lobby Washington in the hope of receiving a green light for launching air strikes against Iran.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak alongside other officials from Tel Aviv headed to Washington on Sunday to present US officials with tactics they believe may end Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.
An Israeli official, who is involved in the talks, said Sunday that officials from the two sides are currently doing a lot of 'strategic thinking'.
"No one has yet to make a decision what to do," Jerusalem Post quoted the Israeli source as saying, "We are still far away from the point where military officers are poring over maps together planning an operation."
This follows the recent publication of an Army War College 'Parameters' article, in which US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that a war against Iran would be 'disastrous on a number of levels', arguing that 'another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need'.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, has also said that fighting a third front would have serious consequences. "We do not need an already unstable part of the world to become more unstable," he has said.
other links:
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USA keeps mum on covert ops in Iran
Israel threatens to wipe Iran off map
Israe's new warplane to spy on Iran
