Israel’s attempts to talk the United States into the support for the soonest military operation against Iran faced some US objections. At a meeting in the White House last Monday President Barack Obama was seeking to convince Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to give some time for the sanctions to take effect, though he did not rule out an option for the use of a military scenario.
Obama and Netanyahu focused on the actions seeking to halt the Iranian nuclear program, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes. Before the meeting sources among Netanyahu’s associates said that the Israeli premier will seek to convince Obama of some support for an Israeli military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities or at least drawing clear-cut red lines. The US will deliver a military strike on Iran if these red lines are transgressed. It looks like Obama avoided the talks about the red lines. No reports were made about the content of the negotiations, because the negotiators decided not to make public a communiqu·.
It is not surprising that at the meeting Obama was seeking to convince Netanyahu that the US and Israel have identical tasks – to prevent Iran from the creation of nuclear weapons, the newspaper noted. However, Tel-Aviv is concerned that some time closer to the US presidential elections due on November 6 Obama will smooth out his militaristic rhetoric and this fact will make sure Tehran once again that the US statements that the country will use force should not be taken at its face value.
The chief scientific fellow of the Institute of Oriental Studies Irina Zvyagelskaya explained the reason, why Netanyahu failed to gain Obama’s full support. “For Obama’s administration the relations with the Arab world are very important. In the current situation, when important changes are taking place in the Arab world and new forces are coming to power as a result of the revolutions, the US support to Israel over a military strike on Iran will be taken as a challenge to the Muslim world. This is a quite serious action that is senseless for the US to take,” the expert believes.
The issue of deadlines in the Iranian issue is vital. If Iranian developments become irreversible in a few months, the US will challenge this assessment, the Israeli authorities believe. Several experts believe that this way Israel will have tougher sanctions to be imposed. From another point of view, Israel is really ready to attack Iran and intends to do it before the US presidential elections. Israel does not intend to launch a large-scale operation and deliver a military strike on all sites of the Iranian nuclear program, Zvyagelskaya noted. “It is enough to use the force against three main Iranian nuclear-related enterprises in Isfahan, Natanz and Arak to throw Iran back in its developments for a long time. Meanwhile, Israel does hope that this way Iran will be forever barred from nuclear developments,” she said.
The Washington talks between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu showed that a new war in the Middle East is getting much closer, the Kommersant daily noted. The US president was seeking to talk the Israeli premier into giving up the plans for an independent strike on Iran, but the Israeli position remained unchanged. If Tehran is getting absolutely closely to the creation of the nuclear weapons, Israel will deliver a military strike regardless the fact whether the US will agree on this operation.
The newspaper reported that at the Washington meeting Barack Obama convinced Netanyahu of the US to recognize the Israeli right for self-defence, but the assessments of the US security services differ with the conclusions of the Israeli intelligence. “The president was seeking to explain that there are still no reasons to put it clearly that Tehran already decided to create nuclear weapons,” a source close to the US State Department told Kommersant.
The newspaper claimed that one of possible scenarios, which the US is already discussing, expects that Iran will agree to halt the production of the 20% uranium enrichment in exchange for the denial of the world community from new sanctions. Meanwhile, the US is ready to provide for the non-stop operation of the research reactor in Tehran that produces the isotopes, which are used in the treatment of the patients with oncologic diseases.