Decision to Attack Iran Is ‘Far Off,’ Israel Says

By ISABEL KERSHNER and RICK GLADSTONE

Published: January 18, 2012

JERUSALEM — Israel moved to calm the increasingly tense discourse over Iran’s nuclear program on Wednesday, with the Israeli defense minister asserting that any decision on a possible pre-emptive military strike on Iranian targets was "very far off."

The assertion by Defense Minister Ehud Barak was at least the third indication from the Israeli government in the past few days that it was not considering armed confrontation over the nuclear issue with Iran anytime soon, and it came amid signs that Iran and Western powers led by the United States might resume talks that have been stalled for a year.

Last weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a published interview that he was beginning to see evidence that onerous Western economic sanctions were pressuring Iran, suggesting that they might succeed. This week, Israel and the United States announced they were postponing joint military exercises in the Middle East. A slightly softened tone toward Iran was also sounded in Washington, where Obama administration officials confirmed that they had recently warned Iran’s leadership through diplomatic back channels against blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway, but that they also had indicated a willingness to resume diplomatic talks.

At the same time, a senior administration official denied Iranian news reports that President Obama had sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, offering direct talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

Publicly, administration officials sidestepped the question.

"We have a number of ways to communicate our views to the Iranian government, and we have used those mechanisms regularly on a range of issues over the years," said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council. "I’m not going to get into the details of those communications or mechanisms."

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the United States had not increased its forces in the Persian Gulf because there was enough American military strength there already. "We obviously always continue to make preparations to be prepared for any contingency, but we are not making any special steps at this point in order to deal with the situation," Mr. Panetta said. "Why? Because, frankly, we are fully prepared to deal with that situation now."

Israel, which regards Iran as its most dangerous enemy, has repeatedly dropped hints recently that it reserved the right to attack Iranian military targets if it concluded that Iran had the capacity to construct a nuclear weapon. But Mr. Barak told Israel’s Army Radio on Wednesday that "we don’t have a decision to go forward with these things."

"We don’t have a decision or a date for taking such a decision," he said. Iran has repeatedly denied that its nuclear fuel enrichment activities are for military use, saying they are meant only for civilian energy and medical purposes. It has called the Israeli threats of attack part of a broader Western-led policy of intimidation, and has accused Israel in particular of orchestrating a clandestine subterfuge campaign, including the assassination of its nuclear scientists. The deputy director of Iran’s main uranium processing operation was assassinated in Tehran last Wednesday, the fifth Iranian scientist with connections to the nuclear program to be killed since 2007.

Mr. Barak’s remarks came ahead of an imminent visit to Israel by the American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey. Israeli news media commentators have suggested that General Dempsey was coming in part to warn Israel against going it alone in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Mr. Barak denied that suggestion. He also reiterated the Israeli assessment that Iran had not started building nuclear weapons.

"The Iranians have not ended the oversight exercised by the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said, adding, "They have not done that because they know that that would constitute proof of the military nature of their nuclear program and that would provoke stronger international sanctions or other types of action against their country."

Iran has said that American and European sanctions aimed at pressuring it to stop enriching uranium are doomed to fail. But with the European Union moving closer to declaring an embargo on Iranian oil exports, and a new American law that penalizes entities that deal with Iran’s Central Bank, the Iranians have shown a new willingness to negotiate.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi of Iran, in a visit to Turkey, said Wednesday that his country was ready to resume negotiations with the outside powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. He said negotiations were under way about the site and date, Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, and that the talks "will most probably be held in Istanbul."

The previous negotiations — also in Istanbul — broke off a year ago when Iran presented its own set of conditions, including a lifting of sanctions, that the West considered unacceptable.

Some Western diplomats have said Iran’s offer to negotiate on the nuclear issue is part of a stalling process to enable it to enrich more uranium while talks are under way. They have also said Iran may be encouraged by the position of Russia, which has always opposed the sanctions on Iran and is even more opposed to military action. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, reiterated Russia’s position on Wednesday at a news conference in Moscow, saying a military strike would be a "disaster."

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Ellen Barry from Moscow, Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Landler from Washington, and Alan Cowell from London.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-program-sanctions-russia-israel-attack.html?_r=1&ref=nuclearprogram