The United States has acknowledged the existence of a fully-fledged military plan to attack Iran, significantly increasing tensions with Tehran ahead of crucial nuclear negotiations next week.
Daniel Shapiro, Washington's ambassador to Israel, warned the Iranian regime that only "a brief window" now existed to settle the impasse over its nuclear programme through democracy.
Issuing one of the most candid assessments yet made by a senior American official, he assured Israel that, if diplomacy failed, the United States was fully prepared to resort to military force to end the threat the Jewish state says it faces from a nuclear-armed Iran.
"At a certain stage we are going to have to decide whether diplomacy isn't going to work," he told the Israeli Bar Association.
"It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than the use of military force. But that doesn't mean that option is not fully available – not just available, but it's ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it's ready." American officials have tangentially referred to the existence of such plans in the past, among them Adm Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff until last year.
But none has done so in such forthright terms for fear that US intentions could be misconstrued and lead to speculation that an attack was imminent.
Mr Shapiro unusually robust language was aimed at reinforcing President Barack Obama's recent pledge that he "has Israel's back" and comes amid continuing US fears that Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's prime minister, could authorise unilateral Israeli military action against Iran.
But his words will undoubtedly prompt hostility in Iran at a particularly delicate time, with Western powers seeing next week's negotiations in Baghdad as a crucial and perhaps final opportunity to convince Iran peacefully to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, on Thursday announced that the US plans to bolster an Israeli anti-rocket system dubbed the 'Iron Dome’ with $70m in assistance this year. The Pentagon has already delivered $205 million in assistance in previous years.
Of course Mr Shapiro doesn't have a dog in this fight. Bastards. When the general popultaion finally wake up it wont be pretty. I hope it's sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the Americans could also outline the plan they had to attack Afghanistan....well before Sept. 11 2001
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