In the wake of Iran’s recent election, a bipartisan group of congressmen are calling on President Obama to increase pressure on Iran to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
War with Iran would probably turn into a month-long conflict on various fronts with missile strikes on Israeli cities and some 500 dead, Israel\’s civil defense minister said in an interview published on Wednesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet with his U.S. counterpart, Leon Panetta, in Washington amid reports that Iran may have achieved the capability to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran will allow inspectors from the United Nations\’ nuclear watchdog group to visit a suspected nuclear site on a military base near Tehran.
President Obama said it was still possible to resolve Iran\’s suspected bid for a nuclear weapon through diplomacy, but added that a military option was still on the table and that containment was not an option.
Iranians voted on Friday in a parliamentary election likely to reinforce Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\’s power over rival hardliners led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Western powers hope to win Russian and Chinese backing for rebuking Iran at the U.N. nuclear agency next week over Tehran\’s failure to address mounting fears that it is secretly bent on acquiring nuclear weapons capability, diplomats say.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog ended its latest mission to Iran after talks on Tehran\’s suspected secret atomic weapons research failed, a setback likely to increase the risk of confrontation with the West.
Russia warned Israel on Wednesday that attacking Iran would be a disastrous and played down the failure of a U.N. nuclear agency mission to Tehran, saying there is still a chance for new talks over the Iranian atomic program.
Iran proclaimed advances in nuclear know-how on Wednesday, including new centrifuges able to enrich uranium much faster, a move that may hasten a drift towards confrontation with the West over suspicions it is seeking the means to make atomic bombs.
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