U.S. officials increasing warnings that the superpower could have joined with Israel in attacking Iran if the Islamic republic does not intend to eliminate the anxiety that its nuclear research program aimed at producing weapons.
Thursday (3/1/2012), or four days before Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, scheduled to arrive in Washington to meet with President Barack Obama, the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, said the Joint Chiefs of Staff has prepared an option military to attack Iran's nuclear sites if a conflict occurs. "What can we do, you will not want to be in the area," said General Schwartz.
Schwartz's statement is different from a White House statement a day earlier. The White House on Wednesday, warned that any military action against Iran would create "greater instability" that could threaten the safety of citizens of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Any military action in the region threatens the greater instability in the region," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. According to Carney, so far, the U.S. had no evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
But Pentagon officials, as quoted in the Washington Post, said the military option is being prepared, starting with providing refueling aircraft to Israel, including attacking the pillars of the clerical regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the elite Qods force , military bases and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. U.S. officials did not want his identity revealed because the Pentagon plans were kept secret.
"No group in America who is more determined to prevent Iran from reaching nuclear weapons than the Joint Chiefs of Staff," said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey told the Congressional Budget Committee on Wednesday.
Separately, a U.S. official who requested anonymity told The Washington Post that U.S. military planners increasingly convinced that the ongoing attacks with bunker-buster bombs to bury the U.S. Air Force of Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Fordo.
Recent warnings about possible U.S. military action against Iran came after a meeting between high officials of Israel and the Obama administration failed to resolve differences about when an attack needs to be done, according to officials of both countries who have participated in the discussion. "Because, in the minds of Israel, and more importantly in the minds of Iran, there is uncertainty about the desire of the government to act. it's imperative that we not only say all options are on the table, but also showed that in some way open," Party members said Rebulik of Michigan, Mike Rogers, who heads the Intelligence Committee of Congress.
The main difference between the U.S. and Israel, U.S. officials said, is a matter of where to draw the line on Iran's nuclear program. Obama administration officials have said the trigger for military action should be a decision of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to enrich uranium beyond the current 20 percent level, which supports nuclear power plant, to manufacture weapons at level 85 or 90 percent.
The U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials said they agreed that such decisions are difficult to detect at a time after the guns have been made.
While their American counterparts to focus on enrichment, Israeli officials describe Iran's nuclear program as a three-legged stool that also includes a number of efforts in different locations to develop a missile warhead capable of carrying nuclear weapons, a nuclear explosion triggers and other components of nuclear devices . Although Israeli officials told the Americans that their ability to attack Iran is greater than many people thought, Iran's enrichment facility at Natanz and Fordo will be very difficult for the Air Force to destroy Israel with their weapon, GBU-28.
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