The top US military officer urged Israel on Sunday to hold off from any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, warning that such a move would be “premature” and “destabilizing.”
In an interview with CNN, General Martin Dempsey cautioned that even a successful strike would only delay the Islamic state’s aim of producing an atomic weapon for a few years. Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.
Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said the United States was urging Israel not to attack Iran because it could spark retaliatory action in the region, possibly in Afghanistan or Iraq.
“That’s the question with which we all wrestle. And the reason that we think that it’s not prudent at this point to decide to attack Iran,” Dempsey said, referring to a possible Iranian response against US interests.
“That’s been our counsel to our allies, the Israelis. And we also know or believe we know that the Iranian regime has not decided that they will embark on the capability — or the effort to weaponize their nuclear capability.
“I’m confident that they (Israel) understand our concerns, that a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn’t achieve their long-term objectives,” he said.
Dempsey’s remarks came as a top US security official met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid rising concerns over Iran and ahead of a trip by the Israeli premier to Washington.
Public radio said Netanyahu and US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon had a two-hour meeting that focused on “regional threats.”
Dempsey said Israel “has the capability to strike Iran and to delay the production or the capability of Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon status probably for a couple of years,” by hitting its atomic production sites.
“But some of the targets are probably beyond their reach. And, of course, that’s what concerns them,” he said.
The lack of clear evidence about what Iran’s true intentions should also lead to a cautious approach, said the top general.
“I believe it is unclear and on that basis, I think it would be premature to exclusively decide that the time for a military option was upon us,” Dempsey said.
“The economic sanctions and the international cooperation that we’ve been able to gather around sanctions is beginning to have an effect,” he added.
“We are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor. And it’s for that reason, I think, that we think the current path we’re on is the most prudent path at this point.”
British foreign minister William Hague, meanwhile, urged Israel against military action.
“I don’t think the wise thing at this moment is for Israel to launch a military attack on Iran,” Hague told BBC television.
“I think Israel, like everybody else in the world, should be giving a real chance to the approach that we have adopted, of very serious economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and the readiness to negotiate with Iran.”
