JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that US President Barack Obama had yet to present a credible military threat that could deter Iran from seeking nuclear weapons.
The latest criticism was voiced by Tzachi Hanegbi, an influential former legislator who quit the opposition Kadima party in July to join up with Likud and Netanyahu, with whom he has always maintained a close relationship.
“I don’t see that there is a credible threat for American action, the rhetoric of the US president is too vague, very amorphous … I don’t see that (Obama’s words) will be translated into more tangible intentions and therefore this is probably why the Iranians don’t take it seriously, they speak out against it and they dismiss it,” Hanegbi said.
It was another sign of Israeli impatience with its closest ally, the United States, which has urged Israel not to attack Iran on its own and to give international diplomacy more time to try to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Obama has insisted he will not allow Iran to build atomic weapons and that all options were on the table, but Israeli officials have said they wanted to hear stronger language from the president about possible US military action. In a US election year, Republican candidate Mitt Romney has also sharply criticised Obama’s handling of Iran as not being tough enough.
Tehran says it is refining uranium to fuel a planned network of nuclear power plants so that it can export more of its oil and gas. The United States and its allies accuse Iran of a covert bid to develop the capability to make nuclear bombs.
Israel, believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, views a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence.
Israel’s deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Friday he feared Iran did not believe it faced a real military threat because of mixed messages from foreign powers. But he told Reuters in July that the United States should lead the way.
“We believe of course that the military option should be the last resort and we believe that someone else should be doing the job. But we should be ready to defend ourselves by ourselves,” he told Reuters in an interview.
