Dempsey claims Israel satisfied the US will use military option against Iran. DEBKAfile: Israel doesn’t say this

DEBKAfile Special Report April 2, 2014, 5:20 PM (IST)

Tags:  Gen. Martin Dempsey,  Israel,  Iran nuclear,  military option,  diplomacy,

Gen. Martin Dempsey meets Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon

Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, flew out of Israel Wednesday, April 2, from three days of talks with Israeli leaders, asserting: “I think they are satisfied we have the capability [to use a military option against Iran]. I think they believe we will use it.” 

 

debkafile sources tracking his talks did not receive that impression from Israeli officials. They did not subscribe to his statement that “Israel and the United States are in broad agreement about the threat that Iran poses to the region and how to deal with it.”

The US general admitted there were differences but added that Israel and the United States are closer now in their assessments of the threat Iran poses and America’s willingness to act. “They just wanted to know that we are maintaining and continuing to refine our military options,” he said.

During his visit, Gen. Dempsey paid calls on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, as well as military intelligence (AMAN) chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. He also raised eyebrows in security circles when he made his own arrangements to see certain retired Israeli generals, including former AMAN head Amos Yadlin,

None of his interlocutors knew what he was talking about when he summed up his visit by saying, “Our clocks are more harmonized than they were two years ago.”

He was evidently referring to the summer of 2012 when Israel and the IDF were all set to stage an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and forced to call it off under sledgehammer pressure from President Barack Obama. Today, while Iran presses on, Israel and the US are no nearer agreement than before, Israeli security circles stress.

Dempsey’s remark that the US “will use a military option if the Iranians choose to stray off the diplomatic path,” is the giveaway. It exposes the Obama administration’s continued refusal to admit that while Tehran sticks to “the diplomatic path” it uses that path to carry on developing its military nuclear capacity undisturbed.