During a visit to Israel next month, President Barack Obama will tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the month of June will serve as a “window of opportunity” for an attack on the country of Iran, the Times of Israel reported on Monday.
The attack would occur due to Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, which the Islamic Republic says is for energy and not weaponry. The United Nations and United States have been issuing sanctions against Iran in an effort to halt the country’s nuclear production. According to the Times, Obama will tell Netanyahu to “sit tight” while the United States attacks Iran should sanctions and diplomacy fail.
“Netanyahu will be asked to refrain from any military action and keep a low profile, avoiding even the mention of a strike,” the Times reports.
This isn’t the first time that the deadline for June has been set in regards to Iran. In August, Obama told Netanyahu that an attack on Iran would occur this June should sanctions and diplomacy fail. According to some reports, Obama was devoted to attacking Iran but wanted to wait until after his reelection.
The Times’s report comes off of a recent poll that found that 99 percent of Americans believe that Iran’s supposed nuclear weapons program poses a threat to the United States. But despite the hype about Iran’s weapons program, U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies have repeatedly stated that the Islamic Republic is not working on nuclear weapons.
The New York Times reported last year that “American intelligence analysts continue to believe that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb.”
Recent assessments by American spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program years earlier, according to current and former American officials. The officials said that assessment was largely reaffirmed in a 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, and that it remains the consensus view of America’s 16 intelligence agencies.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta further stated last year that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and is instead enriching uranium for energy research.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in January 2012 that “Iran has not yet decided whether to make a nuclear bomb, according to the intelligence assessment (of) Israeli officials,” and that “The Israeli view is that while Iran continues to improve its nuclear capabilities, it has not yet decided whether to translate these capabilities into a nuclear weapon - or, more specifically, a nuclear warhead mounted atop a missile. Nor is it clear when Iran might make such a decision.”
Some analysts believe that an attack on Iran would lead to World War III. Additionally, an attack on Iran could result in fighting with Russia and China, which are both allied with Iran.
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