President Barack Obama's national security adviser has briefed Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a U.S. contingency plan to attack Iran should diplomacy fail to curb its nuclear program, an Israeli newspaper reported on Sunday.
The Haaretz newspaper said that the U.S. adviser - Thomas Donilon - had described the plan in talks with Netanyahu earlier this month.
A senior Netanyahu
aide, Harel Locker, refused to comment on the report when asked about it
in an interview with an Israeli radio station. Another Israeli official
reached by telephone, said "we do not comment on closed-door diplomatic
meetings".
Haaretz said the
secret briefing was the most significant effort by high-level U.S.
officials who had visited Israel in the past month, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to try to dissuade Israel from launching its own military strike on Iran.
The report
coincided with a visit to Israel by Obama's main rival in his reelection
bid this November, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who is due to meet
Netanyahu on Sunday.
Quoting a senior
U.S. official it said spoke on condition of anonymity, Haaretz said
Donilon had told Netanyahu the Pentagon was planning for a possible
decision to attack Iran's nuclear sites, and had shown him some of the
plans.
In their talks, the
same official said Donilon had also detailed the U.S. military's
ability to penetrate nuclear facilities buried deep underground, and had
said that such contingency plans were being drawn up in case of a
possible deadlock in diplomacy with Iran.
The failure of
talks between Iran and six world powers to secure a breakthrough in
curbing what the West fears is a drive to develop nuclear weapons has
raised international concerns that Israel, widely assumed to be the
Middle East's only nuclear-armed state, may opt for a go-it-alone
military strike.
Israel has warned
the West it thinks it is only a matter of time before Iran's nuclear
program achieves a "zone of immunity" in which bombs will not be able to
effectively strike uranium enrichment facilities buried deep
underground.
Iran says its program is solely for peaceful purposes.
On a visit to
Jerusalem this month, Clinton said Israel and Washington were "on the
same page" with respect to Iran, calling Iran's latest proposals to
world power talks on the issue "non starters."
"Our own choice is
clear, we will use all elements of American power to prevent Iran from
obtaining a nuclear weapon," Clinton said.
Source
Source
