Israel irked by top US officials' opposition to Iran attack

US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/227843.html

The Israeli regime has condemned recent remarks made by senior US officials critical of Tel Aviv’s threats of attacking Iran, claiming that they "served Iran's interests."

In a meeting with US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed their displeasure to the high-ranking American official.

According to a senior Israeli official, Netanyahu and Barak were bitterly irked by the interview given by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey on Sunday, during which he emphasized that attacking Iran is “not prudent at this point” as it "would be destabilizing," Ha’aretz reported on Tuesday.

"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," Dempsey said.

"We made it clear to Donilon that all those statements and briefings only served the Iranians… The Iranians see there's controversy between the United States and Israel, and that the Americans object to a military act. That reduces the pressure on them,” the Israeli official said.

Israeli officials have recently ramped up their war rhetoric threatening Iran with military strikes in case the US-engineered sanctions against the country fail to force Tehran into abandoning its civilian nuclear program.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program, using this pretext to impose sanctions against Iran and threaten the country with military attack.

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted towards nuclear weapons production.