Monday, February 15, 2010

Mullen: No Nukes for Iran but No Attack

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Mullen: No Nukes for Iran but No Attack
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Visiting U.S. Chief of Staff Mike Mullen said in Tel Aviv on Sunday that Iran must not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons but added that attacking Iran would have “unintended consequences." He maintained that Tehran is up to three years away from nuclear capability. Despite his concerns about a military attack, he stated that all options are on the table and that "we would operate all our forces for Israel." He added, "I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences of a strike. I think the Iranians are very difficult to predict.

“Politically, it is prohibited in any way that Iran will have nuclear weapons”, Admiral Michael Mullen told a press conference shortly after his arrival in Israel.

“Of course, there are limits and this [military] option is on the table, but we are not there yet,” Mullen said, explaining that Iran is one to three years away from being able to deliver a nuclear weapon. Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran has produced its first batch of enriched uranium, a key element for a nuclear weapon.

Mullen's visit to Israel on Sunday is the second in the past year as the United States continues to insist that diplomatic sanctions can stop Iran from producing a nuclear warhead aimed at annihilating Israel. The Obama administration is hoping that China will fall into line and join U.N. Security Council nations to back stiffer sanctions against Iran.

Mullen is scheduled to meet on Monday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and senior IDF officials while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting Saudi Arabia and Doha, where she said on Sunday what Israel has been warning for years, namely that "evidence is accumulating" that Iran is aiming to build a nuclear weapon.

The United States has said it is depending on the Persian Gulf States to use their influence to pressure Iran to halt its unsupervised nuclear program.

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