Netanyahu calls for US to give Iran a 'clear red line'
Amid the latest Israeli pressure on the US to take a stronger stand against Iran, the Obama administration is taking new steps to warn Iran against making any further moves toward nuclear weapons.
Amid the latest Israeli pressure on the US to take a stronger stand against Iran, the Obama administration is taking new steps to warn Iran against making any further moves toward nuclear weapons.
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The Obama administration is stepping up measures against Iran, both to force Tehran to negotiate over its nuclear program and to mute Israeli leadership's ongoing drumbeat for a military strike against Iran.
According to a New York Times report yesterday, the US is set to hold a large-scale minesweeping naval exercise later this month in the Persian Gulf, and is accelerating efforts to complete a new radar system in Qatar that, in combination with existing radar in Turkey and Israel, would create broad antimissile coverage around and against Iran. The programs are meant to send a message to Tehran that closing the Gulf and developing nuclear weapons would be largely futile.聽
The Times adds that the US is also reluctantly considering previously rejected covert action against Iran, including air strikes on power plants and other sites that could impact Iranian civilian populations, as well as a "clandestine" strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, much like the strike Israel launched against Syria in 2007.
The Times report comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the international community to set a "clear red line" for military action against Iran.聽 Bloomberg News reports that Mr. Netanyahu said that such a threat was necessary to rein in Iran.
But while the war drumbeat in Israel, echoed in its media, has been loud in recent weeks, there are signs that it is abating.聽 Amos Harel writes in Haaretz today that the newspaper Israel Hayom, perceived as having close ties to Netanyahu's government, has been taking a softer stance in recent days 鈥� perhaps a sign that Netanyahu has "overplayed [his] hand."
Mr. Harel adds that "many officials now believe an attack is not as inevitable as it previously seemed."
And while a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's nuclear program brought a brief "bout of panic" concerning an Iranian nuclear weapon, Shashank Joshi writes in a blog post for the Telegraph that the IAEA report indicated that despite increasing its uranium enrichment and installing more centrifuges, Iran has actually taken steps that put its program farther away from a "zone of immunity" from Israeli attack.