Editor's Note: While the President pretends to support Israel, it is clear to see the Obama administration is hell-bent on allowing Iran to build a nuclear bomb by protecting them from any measures by Israel to stop them. Does Obama and the current administration really want to prevent Iran from making a Nuke? I don't think so!!!
Fox News
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| May 20, 2011: President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu meet for discussion. |
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he doesn't want war but insists he would attack Iran if that was the only option left to stop that nation from getting a nuclear weapon.
"Loose talk of war" only plays into Iran's hands, Obama said Sunday. On Monday, he will try to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to slow quickening pressure among many in his hawkish government to attack Iran's disputed nuclear development sites. Obama is trying to avert an Israeli strike that could come this spring, and which the United States sees as dangerously premature.
The president is expected to tell Netanyahu in private at the White House that although the U.S. is committed to Israel's security it does not want to be dragged into another war. Obama is unlikely to spell out U.S. "red lines" that would trigger a military response, despite Israeli pressure to do so.
U.S. officials believe that while Tehran can build a nuclear weapon, it has not yet decided to do so. They want to give sanctions time to pressure Iran to give up any military nuclear ambitions. Israel says the threat is too great to wait and many officials there are advocating a pre-emptive strike.
Obama did not directly call on Israel to stand down, and made a point of saying Israel should always have the right to defend itself as it sees fit.
That was the part of Obama's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that Netanyahu said he liked best. Speaking to reporters in Canada ahead of his arrival in the U.S., Netanyahu made no reference to the sanctions and diplomacy Obama emphasized
Obama is unlikely to persuade Netanyahu that economic sanctions and diplomacy are enough to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and he is unlikely to win any new concessions from Netanyahu on peace talks, the issue that drew bad blood between the two men in previous meetings and led the Israeli leader to publicly scold Obama last year.
Netanyahu has not publicly backed a military strike, but his government spurned arguments from top U.S. national security leaders that a pre-emptive attack would fail.
"Now is not the time for bluster," Obama said. "Now is the time to let our increased pressure sink in."
Obama framed military force as a last resort, not the next option at a time when sanctions are squeezing Iran. He said just the talk of war has driven up the price of oil to the benefit of Iran.
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