Western nations are stepping up their pressure on Israeli leadership to hold off on any plans that might be in the works to launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear installations.

Led by the United States, which has been sending a succession of senior security officials to the Jewish state, London was the latest to join the chorus. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chief of Staffs, told CNN on Sunday [February 19] that Israel understands American concerns “that a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn't achieve their long-term objectives.”

Dempsey echoed the common assessment that complete destruction of the Iranian nuclear weapon threat is beyond the capability of the Israeli military and at best, an Israeli strike will only delay the inevitable by a year or so.

US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon was in Israel at the time, presumably delivering the same message to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has been causing concern in Washington with his statements harbingering Iran’s rapidly nearing “zone of invulnerability”—the tipping point after which a military strike would be ineffective.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC that, “I don't think a wise thing at this moment is for Israel to launch a military attack on Iran. I think Israel like everyone else in the world should be giving a real chance to the approach we have adopted on very serious economic sanctions and economic pressure and the readiness to negotiate with Iran.”

Taking a different approach, former Department of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge told Fox News on Sunday that Western nations do not understand Israel’s plight as the country that is targeted by Iranian weapons that are backing up Tehran’s existential threat against it.
 

Source: (By The Media Line, February 20, 2012)

Photo Credit: Isranet