Military strike on Iran would be ‘ destabilizing,’ Israel told

Top officials from the United States and Britain urged Israel on Sunday to hold off from any military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, warning such a move would be “premature” and “destabilizing.”

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U. S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned even a successful military strike could only delay Iran’s nuclear program for a few years.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but Western nations and Israel believe it will soon have the scientific and industrial capability to build them.

There has been speculation recently that Israel is within weeks of deciding on a military response.

British Foreign Minister William Hague also urged Israel against military action: “I think Israel, like everybody else in the world, should be giving a real chance to the approach that we have adopted, of very serious economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and the readiness to negotiate with Iran.”

Dempsey told CNN the U. S. also was urging Israel not to attack Iran because it could spark retaliatory action in the region, possibly in Afghanistan or Iraq.

“That’s been our counsel to our allies, the Israelis. And we also know or believe we know that the Iranian regime has not decided that they will embark on the capability — or the effort to weaponize their nuclear capability.

“I’m confident that they [ Israel] understand our concerns, that a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn’t achieve their long- term objectives,” he said.

Dempsey said Israel “has the capability to strike Iran and to delay the production or the capability of Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon status probably for a couple of years,” by hitting its atomic production sites.

“But some of the targets are probably beyond their reach. And, of course, that’s what concerns them,” he said.

For example, Iran announced Sunday it has begun installing a new generation of centrifuges to enrich uranium at a facility built deep inside a mountain. The lack of clear evidence of Iran’s true intentions also should lead to a cautious approach, Dempsey said.

“I believe it is unclear and on that basis, I think it would be premature to exclusively decide that the time for a military option was upon us,” he said.

“The economic sanctions and the international cooperation that we’ve been able to gather around sanctions is beginning to have an effect

“We are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor. And it’s for that reason, I think, that we think the current path we’re on is the most prudent path at this point.”