The "window is closing" on opportunities to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday (see GSN, July 7).
(Jul. 8) -
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, shown in May, yesterday predicted that Iran could build a nuclear weapon in one to three years (Mark Wilson/Getty Images).
Adm. Michael Mullen estimated that Iran would build its first nuclear bomb in one to three years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Tehran has insisted its nuclear efforts are strictly geared toward generating electricity for civilian use.
"Iran is very focused on developing this [nuclear weapons] capability," Mullen said. "The clock is ticking and that's why I'm as concerned as I am."
Mullen said that Washington has not ruled out the possibility of taking military action against Iranian nuclear facilities, but he stressed that an attack on Iran was more likely to come from Israel.
Israel recently sent a submarine across the Red Sea to show Iranians that "they are not beyond our reach," one Israeli official said. The vessel was speculated to carry nuclear weapons (Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal, July 8).
Mullen, though, warned of the ramifications of an attack on Iran, the Associated Press reported. Such an event would be "very destabilizing," he said.
"I worry a great deal about the response of a country that gets struck" in an attack, Mullen said. "It is a really important place to not go, if we can not go there in any way, shape or form."
He urged the international community to settle the standoff "before Iran gets a nuclear capability, or that anyone ... would take action to strike" (Anne Gearan, Associated Press/Google News, July 8).
U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday said the United States has "absolutely not" acquiesced to a potential Israeli strike on Iran, but that Washington cannot "dictate" security matters to other nations, Agence France-Presse reported.
"What is also true is, it is the policy of the United States to try to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities ... through diplomatic channels," Obama said. His comments followed Vice President Joseph Biden's statement Sunday that Israel would decide how it needed to confront Iran (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, July 7).
An Iraqi lawmaker cautioned Israel against using Iraqi airspace for an attack on Iranian facilities, the Xinhua News Agency reported today.
"Any Israeli violation of Iraqi national airspace would be considered [an] offense against Iraq," Iraqi state media quoted Hassan al-Senied, a member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee, as saying.
"Iraq will take political, legal, diplomatic and defensive steps and will move internationally against any violation from any country," the legislator said (Xinhua News Agency, July 8).