Britannia Radio

Panetta: Military option against Iran ready and available

By JPOST.COM STAFF

05/27/2012 18:24

US secretary of defense speaks to ABC news, says neither Washington nor international community will allow Iran do develop a nuclear weapon; adds preference for diplomacy over military intervention.

Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing

 

The military option against Iran is ready and available, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on Sunday in an interview with ABC News' This Week.

 

"The fundamental premise is that neither the United States nor the international community is going to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," Panetta said. "We will do everything we can to prevent them from developing a weapon."

 

Related:

• 'Iran to face harsher sanctions despite talks'
• Iran: We have no reason to stop 20% enrichment

 

Panetta referenced recent comments made earlier this month by US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that Washington has a military contingency plan, should diplomatic talks fail to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear program. “It would be preferable to solve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure, than to use military force,” he said. "But that doesn’t mean that option isn’t fully available. Not just available, it’s ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready."

 

During the course of the interview, the US secretary of defense also addressed the issues of NATO's involvement in Afghanistan as well as the growing threat of cyber warfare.

 

Panetta met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Pentagon earlier this month, with the aim of coordinating strategy with the US ahead of the second round of talks between western powers and Iran scheduled to open next week in Baghdad.

 

Iran struck a defiant tone at the P5+1 negotiations that kicked off on May 23, seemingly rejecting calls to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent, one of the West's key demands in negotiations over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program.

“We have no reason to cede on 20 percent, because we produce only as much of the 20 percent fuel as we need. No more, no less,” Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization was quoted as saying late Saturday.

 

A senior US official was quoted on Saturday by Israel Radio as saying that the US was planning on increasing sanctions on Iran until it ceased enriching uranium.