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ISRAEL ENVOY: U.S. PLANS FOR STRIKE ON IRAN READY
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 17, 2012 - 19:01 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. plans for a possible military strike on Iran
are ready and the option is "fully available", the U.S. ambassador
to Israel said, days before Tehran resumes talks with world powers
which suspect it of seeking to develop nuclear arms, Reuters reported.
Like Israel, the United States has said it considers military force
a last resort to prevent Iran using its uranium enrichment to make a
bomb. Iran insists its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.
"It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the
use of pressure than to use military force," Ambassador Dan Shapiro
said in remarks about Iran aired by Israel's Army Radio on Thursday,
May 17.
"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," said Shapiro, who the radio station said
had spoken on Tuesday.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany have
been using sanctions and negotiations to try to persuade Iran to
curb its uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for reactors,
medical isotopes, and, at higher levels of purification, fissile
material for warheads.
New talks opened in Istanbul last month and resume on May 23 in
Baghdad.
Israel, which is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic
arsenal, feels threatened by the prospect of its arch-foe Iran going
nuclear and has hinted it could launch preemptive war.
But many analysts believe the United States alone has the military
clout to do lasting damage to Iran's nuclear program.
In January, Shapiro told an Israeli newspaper the United States was
"guaranteeing that the military option is ready and available to the
president at the moment he decides to use it".
U.S. lawmakers are considering additional legislation that would
increase pressure on Iran, with further measures to punish foreign
companies for dealing with Iran in any capacity.
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 17, 2012 - 19:01 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. plans for a possible military strike on Iran
are ready and the option is "fully available", the U.S. ambassador
to Israel said, days before Tehran resumes talks with world powers
which suspect it of seeking to develop nuclear arms, Reuters reported.
Like Israel, the United States has said it considers military force
a last resort to prevent Iran using its uranium enrichment to make a
bomb. Iran insists its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.
"It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the
use of pressure than to use military force," Ambassador Dan Shapiro
said in remarks about Iran aired by Israel's Army Radio on Thursday,
May 17.
"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," said Shapiro, who the radio station said
had spoken on Tuesday.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany have
been using sanctions and negotiations to try to persuade Iran to
curb its uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for reactors,
medical isotopes, and, at higher levels of purification, fissile
material for warheads.
New talks opened in Istanbul last month and resume on May 23 in
Baghdad.
Israel, which is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic
arsenal, feels threatened by the prospect of its arch-foe Iran going
nuclear and has hinted it could launch preemptive war.
But many analysts believe the United States alone has the military
clout to do lasting damage to Iran's nuclear program.
In January, Shapiro told an Israeli newspaper the United States was
"guaranteeing that the military option is ready and available to the
president at the moment he decides to use it".
U.S. lawmakers are considering additional legislation that would
increase pressure on Iran, with further measures to punish foreign
companies for dealing with Iran in any capacity.