B. Netanyahu and B. Obama

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B. Netanyahu and B. Obama

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is expected to meet the American president Barack Obama on March 5, and is expected to demand of the American leader that he make “further-reaching declarations” about the readiness of the U.S. army to execute a military intervention against Iran, if the Islamic country crosses some lines.

Haaretz says that the leaders of Israel are not satisfied with the vague expressions such as “all options are on the table.” On Tuesday, Israel announced that if it decided to attack Iran, it would be an unilateral action, and the United States would be kept out of the loop.

The Israelis motivated this decision by their desire to prevent the United States from being accused of having known about the attack and not stopping it, but analysts consider that the decision is also reflecting a frustration of the Israelis, who take it very hard that the United States postpones an attack on the Iranian nuclear installations.

The United States has so far convinced Israel that any attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities would only slow the regime down for a while but that on the long run it would not be able to stop it.

The American intelligence also attempted to convince their allies in the Middle East that Iran has not yet decided to make a nuclear weapon, an assessment restated on Tuesday by Hillary Clinton, in spite of the intelligence offered by the International Atomic Energy Agency that computer simulations were being made in Iran related to nuclear weapons.

Israel reminds the American allies that IAEA said that Iran is moving ahead with key elements associated with bomb making, and the nuclear operations are being moved underground. These in their opinion are clear signs of their intentions.

A serious lack of trust exists between the United States and Israel as to the attitude toward Iran, an American senior official who is preparing the visit to Washington told Haaretz under conditions of anonymity.

The White House Proposed Netanyahu to issue a joint statement after the visit in order to send out a signal that the disagreement on Iran has been solved and to offer a unique position of the two allies, so that Iran be placed under supplemental pressure.

Haaretz believes that the lack of trust on the Iranian matter is generated by the fact that the two states feel each like the other is interfering in their domestic affairs, in the sense that the Obama administration is attempting to convince Israeli public not to support the attacks, while the Netanyahu government is using its connections in the Congress and the presidential contenders to convince the U.S. to join the operation.

The issue of hardening the rhetoric was discussed by Ehud Barak during his meeting in Washington with Vice President Joe Biden, and by the meeting of the Israeli PM with U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon.

There is no date established for an attack on Iran, but it is considered that in order for it to be effective it would have to be before summer. The United States say that an attack on Iran would destabilize the entire zone, would trigger a raise of oil prices and would engage the United States in a war in the Middle East during presidential election season.

Israel considers that a nuclear Iran is a direct threat to the existence of Israel as a state, based on the repeated assertions made by the leaders of the Islamic republic who threatened with the destruction of Israel, the support for anti-Israeli militant groups, and the ballistic arsenal which is already capable of hitting Israel.

U.S. general Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Congress that he had never advised Israel against attacking Iran, that he had a conversation with them about the time and that he would not take the military option off the table.

Israel has welcomed the sanctions imposed on Iran by the Americans and the Europeans, but fears that they may not produce the effect they Western countries expect, and that on top of it would be too late to strike Iran, when the sanctions reach their climax.

American Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed reservations about the effectiveness of the plan to hit Iranian facilities, and warned that the attack could create very serious consequences.

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