US and Israeli threats of a military strike have done nothing to stop Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear capability, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday in talks with US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
“You yourself said a few months ago that when all else fails, America will act. But these declarations have also not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme,” Mr Netanyahu told the Pentagon chief.
“This must change, and it must change quickly because time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out.”
Mr Panetta issued his own warning to Iran over its efforts to develop what Israel and much of the West believe is a bid for military nuclear capability.
“They have a choice to make,” he told reporters on a visit to an Iron Dome missile defence battery in the southern port town of Ashkelon with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
“They can either negotiate in a way that tries to resolve these issues and has them abiding by international rules and requirements and giving up their effort to develop their nuclear capability.
“But if they don’t, and if they continue to make the decision to proceed with a nuclear weapon... we have options that we are prepared to implement to ensure that does not happen.”
Israel, the sole – if undeclared – nuclear power in the Middle East, has repeatedly warned that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to it, and both Israeli and US officials have repeatedly warned that all options – including a military strike – were on the table for preventing such a scenario. “You recently said that sanctions on Iran are having a big impact on the Iranian economy, and that is correct,” MrNetanyahu told Mr Panetta. “But unfortunately it is also true that neither sanctions nor diplomacy have yet had any impact on Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
And until now, Iran had not taken US or Israeli threats of a military strike on its uranium enrichment facilities seriously, he said.
Mr Panetta reiterated US pleas for time to let diplomacy and sanctions work before considering a strike.
“We have to exhaust every option, every effort before we resort to military action,” he said in Ashkelon.
“It is my responsibility as secretary of defence to provide the president with a full range of options, including military options should diplomacy fail,” he added.
Asked how the Obama administration would react in the event of a unilateral Israeli strike, Mr Panetta said that the question of what was in Israel’s national security interest “is something that must be left up to the Israelis.”
Mr Barak said it was extremely unlikely that sanctions and diplomacy would convince Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, which Tehran insists are peaceful.
“The probability of this happening is extremely low,” he said, noting Iran was continuing with daily enrichment of “uranium needed for their weapon.”
Reacting yesterday, the White House insisted sanctions against Iran were having a “significant” impact.
President Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney said Iran had “yet to make the choice it needs to, which is to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.”