PJ: I fear that the right wing in both Israel and the US will do whatever they can to promote the use of military power against Iran in a first strike scenario. I hope that I am wrong....
The Sydney Morning Herald
Obama says Israel and US are looking for a diplomatic solution to Iran issue
Israel's Foreign Minister was travelling to Washington yesterday amid signs that the US and its Middle East ally hold diverging views on how best to resolve the standoff over Iran's disputed nuclear program.
The US President, Barack Obama, has seemingly contradicted his Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, saying he did not believe Israel was committed to a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Mr Obama did not say whether the US could expect early warning about a strike, saying only that the two nations shared the closest military and intelligence ties ever and would proceed ''in lockstep … to try to solve this''.
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''Any kind of additional military activity inside the [Persian] Gulf is disruptive and has a big effect on us,'' Mr Obama said. ''It could have a big effect on oil prices; we've still got troops in Afghanistan, which borders Iran.''
But he did not believe Iran was capable of hitting back against the US, despite a claim last week made by an Israeli minister that Iran was developing a mid-range ballistic missile that could reach America's east coast. He said Iran was being hard hit by sanctions, but Israel rightly was concerned about its security.
''And so our preferred solution here is diplomatic,'' he said. ''We're going to keep on pushing on that front. But we're not going to take any options off the table.''
Mr Panetta, according to US news reports, had said he expected unilateral Israeli action as soon as April, a view given weight by Israel's Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, who warned last week that a window was fast closing for a successful strike.
Fearing that Iran would move its uranium-enrichment and nuclear facilities deep underground, Mr Barak said: ''If [economic and other] sanctions don't achieve their goal of halting Iran's nuclear-weapons program, there will arise the need of weighing an operation.''
Mr Obama said on Sunday that he did not believe Israel had committed to such action and said the two governments were working to solve the crisis, ''hopefully diplomatically''.
''I don't think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do,'' he said.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, plans to discuss the recent EU decision to ban Iranian oil imports from July 1 and freeze assets of its central bank and other entities.
The talks precede a visit to Washington by the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, next month, to address the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/obama-says-israel-and-us-are-looking-for-a-diplomatic-solution-to-iran-issue-20120206-1r1xd.html
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