Panetta, playing down talk of Iran attack plans, meeting with Israeli leaders
US secretary of defense says discussions of the Iranian threat are not a review of attack scenarios; Netanyahu: 'Iran wants to annihilate us. I won't let that happen.'
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday, having arrived the night before from a visit to Cairo.
A potential Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear sites was expected to be a major topic of his talks, but Panetta also planned to discuss with the Israelis the progress they are making on building the Iron Dome air defense system, which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets and artillery shells. He was also expected to discuss the ongoing violence in Syria, as well as the poor state of relations between Israel and Turkey.
Asked in Cairo about Israeli news reports that he planned to share with Israel details of American plans for potential military intervention in Iran, Panetta said that was a “wrong characterization” of what he would talk about. Rather, he said, his talks in Jerusalem would be “more about what is the threat we are confronting” in Iran’s nuclear program and sharing intelligence information.
AFP quoted the Pentagon chief as telling a news conference in Cairo before flying to Jerusalem that “we have in the past and we’ll continue to discuss the situation with regards to Iran and the threat that it poses in the region.”
“I think it’s the wrong characterization to say that we’re going to be discussing potential attack plans. What we are discussing are various contingencies on how we would respond,” Panetta said.
Reuters reported that Panetta added, “Both of our countries are committed to ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon and to that extent we continue to work together in the effort to ensure that Iran does not reach that point of developing a nuclear weapon.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu said in interviews with Israel’s Channel 2 and Channel 10 television stations that “Iran wants to annihilate us. I won’t let that happen.”
“Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don’t entrust to others – not even to our best friends,” the prime minister continued. “[President Barack] Obama and [Mitt] Romney both said that Israel has the right to defend itself against any threat, and we are obligated to make the decisions.”