More Israeli threats

Israel: US, West Must Threaten to Attack Iran Within Next Month

Steinitz: Iran Must Halt Entire Program or Face Attack

Anti-war,

8 April, 2013

The latest round of talks between the P5+1 and Iran came screeching to a halt this weekend when Iran offered a proposal to settle the issue once and for all, a proposal which appears to have made Western nations, which were hoping to milk these do-nothing summits for many more years, exceedingly uncomfortable.

Not that this is over with, however, it’s business as usual, and for Israel that means insisting that the latest round of talks proves the need for a war. Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz is demanding that the US and other Western nations immediately issue an ultimatum to Iran to submit entirely or face invasion.

Steinitz’s comments center on a long-standing divide between the US and Israel on whether the regular US threats to attack Iran are enough, or if threatening them somewhat more often and with more specificity would be a better idea.

Steinitz wants this next round of threats to be really specific, insisting the US must set a red line of Iran totally abandoning its civilian nuclear program in “a few weeks, a month” at the most, and that it would face immediate attack if it did not do so.

The US seems to be taking the bait, with Secretary of State John Kerry reiterating that the talks “cannot last forever.” Since the US seems uncomfortable with the idea of ever accepting a deal with Iran, it seems the only alternatives left are to start a war or just talk forever.

The threats may set the stage for the coveted “June war” that Israeli officials have talked up in the past, but the who process must not be overstated, since of course every single time the P5+1 meets with Iran it is followed by a flurry of hysterical war-mongering, instigated by some Israeli official or another, and doesn’t necessarily mean anything beyond those officials hoping to score points with their hawkish constituents.