Russian TV: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that Israel could attack Iran in the next few months. This follows Israeli reports that Iran has the capability to develop four nuclear bombs and reach the US with a missile strike.
Panetta sees a ‘strong possibility’ of an Israeli strike on Iran in either April, May or June, according to Thursday’s Washington Post. The attack would occur before Iran enters a so-called ‘immunity zone’, when its nuclear facilities will be too heavily fortified for an attack to succeed.
Post columnist’s David Ignatius, who broke the story, believes the overriding fear in Israel is that Iran has come close enough to making a nuke that only the USA will be capable of militarily stopping them.
Ignatuis was once called “mainstream media’s chief apologist for CIA crimes” by Johns Hopkins’ Melvin A. Goodman over the former’s support for US intelligence and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Panetta and the Pentagon declined to comment on the Post’s piece, though Reuters has anonymous confirmation from the White House of the Defense Secretary’s position.