WarSclerotic

The Media Line.

Written by Benjamin Joffe-Walt Published Sunday, February 28, 2010
Analysts baffled after Iran leaves nuclear stockpile exposed to aerial attack. Iran has exposed the majority of its nuclear fuel stockpile to an aerial attack by moving it from a deep, underground plant to an above-ground facility, it was revealed over the weekend. The New York Times reported Saturday that two weeks ago Iran moved 4,300 pounds of its low-enriched nuclear fuel, the vast majority of Iran’s nuclear stockpile, from the underground plant in Natanz to an above-ground plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that its inspectors were present when Iran made the move, and the newspaper claimed IAEA officials were baffled as to why Iran would leave its nuclear stockpile exposed to an aerial attack. The news had military analysts in Israel, the U.S. and the Gulf region speculating as to reasons behind the Iranian move. A number of theories as to the reasons behind the Iranian move have been posited. Some have argued that Iran was taunting Israel and the West, or goading them into military action so as to unify the country, while others argued there may be more mundane explanations, such as a technical need to move the stockpile or a lack of storage space suitable for nuclear fuel. “There is a lot of speculation out there, including the idea that they ran out of storage space or that they are trying to move the fuel,” Dr Theodore Karasik, Director for Research and Development at the Institute for Near East Gulf Military Analysis told The Media Line. “I don’t buy that at all. They are very smart and they have been very meticulous at what they do. This is meant to titillate the West into come kind of military action by drawing attention to the fact that they have moved all this above ground.” “Iran is playing a brinkmanship game,” he said. “At this time, the West, excluding Israel, has no appetite to attack Iran. So Iran is just waving this in the face of both Israel and the West.” “They are also betting that the US and/or Israel would only do a limited punitive strike against Iran,” Dr Karasik said. “The leadership is hoping that a punitive attack would not really hurt them militarily and would unite the country behind them. So they are putting this target out there to test how Israel and the West will respond.” Dr Ephraim Inbar, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, an Israeli geopolitical think tank, argued that whatever the status of Iran’s nuclear program, this latest move was designed to embarrass Obama. “This is part of a psychological warfare game which you cannot always understand,” he told The Media Line. “What they are actually doing is a mystery, but what is clear is that this is not carelessness. They are quite smart, quite provocative, and they know what they are doing. So I think they are basically showing off because they know that Obama, who is a political weakling, is not going to do anything about it.” Dr Inbar argued that from an Israeli military perspective there was little military significance behind the Iranian move. “It’s not the initial product that is of interest to us, it’s their capacity to process it,” he said. “In other words the slightly enriched uranium itself has no military significance. What we are most interested in is destroying their capability to further enrich this fuel.” Dr Ze’ev Maghen, chairman of the Middle Eastern Studies Department at Bar Ilan University in Israel, warned against reading too much into every Iranian move. “Any of these motives make sense,” he told The Media Line. “A taunt would be consistant with the kind of ‘psych-out’ that we’ve gotten used to. It’s a way of saying we have a full right to do this and lets see you do something about it. The longer the international community doesn’t do anything about it the more solid this dynamic becomes.” “But as clever as people think they are I also think that we attribute a bit too much plotting and scheming to them,” Dr Maghen said, “In the same way as they think everything we do is a plot or a conspiracy.” Dr Maghen argued that such moves were more likely intended for a domestic audience. “It’s for internal consumption,” he said. “There is no other way of explaining why all this time why they would flaunt their nuclear achievements.” “I’m sure they have a great deal more uranium in many other places so i don’t think they’re so worried about loosing these stocks,” Dr Maghen added. “You put it out there and if in the end Israel does attack them, it wont be the end of their existence or their nuclear program. So I guess it’s a risk they are willing to take.” Israel, the U.S. and other Western powers believe Iran is developing a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a charge Iran vehemently denies. Regardless of Iran’s intentions, the Islamic republic seems to have mastered at least two of the three steps needed to effectively launch a nuclear weapon. The first step is developing a medium-range rocket capable of striking Israel and Arab nations allied with the West. The second step is to acquire highly enriched, weapons grade uranium, a process Iran has already begun at its Natanz nuclear facility. Iran’s progress on the final step, developing a warhead capable of being attached to the missile, remains unclear. Western governments believe Iran halted its warhead research program in 2003, but there is little consensus among intelligence agencies on the issue. Gulf states, fearing the encroachment of Iranian power throughout the region, have urged Iran’s leadership to comply with international demands regarding the development of its nuclear program. Israel, most directly threatened by a potential Iranian nuclear program, has been vociferous in calling for limiting negotiations with Iran and has refused to rule out taking military action against the country. Iran maintains that as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it is entitled to develop a civilian nuclear program and has warned it will launch a crushing response should it be attacked by Israel. While Israel has a policy of neither confirming nor denying its possession of a nuclear arsenal, it is widely believed that the country has over 200 ready-to-launch nuclear warheads. The U.S. has put mild but increasing pressure on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a request the Jewish state has so far refused.

Fars News Agency :: Commander Underlines Iran’s Strategic Supremacy over Europe.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Sunday reiterated Iran’s control over the world’s energy supplies, warning that Iran has the power to cut energy supplies to the Green Continent whenever needed, specially in the cold season.

“Iran sits on 50% of the world’s energy (supplies) and if it wants, Europe will spend the winter in the chill,” IRGC Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, addressing Basij (volunteer) forces in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman.

Iran is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of crude oil and sits on 16 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves – second in the world only to Russia.

The US-led West is at odds with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, which it says is only aimed at producing electricity but the West alleges to be aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

Iran, which borders the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz through which around 40 percent of the world’s oil supply crosses, has not ruled out blocking the passage in case of an attack.

Speculation that Israel could also bomb Iran mounted after a big Israeli air drill in June. In the first week of June, 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters reportedly took part in an exercise over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, which was interpreted as a dress rehearsal for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

Senior Iranian commanders in reaction to Israel’s recent war rhetoric warned Tel Aviv of Iran’s devastating response to any possible military action against the country.

Meantime, Iran’s move to cut energy supplies to Europe can cause devastating losses for the Europe given the fact that Russia, main supplier of Europe’s energy needs has pursued the strategic goal of dominating natural gas supplies to Europe and the pipelines that deliver them.

Russia’s pricing dispute with Ukraine last year disrupted the flow of natural gas, leaving hundreds of thousands in Eastern Europe shivering in the deep winter cold.

Barak: Iran not developing ‘Avatar longbows’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Ynet

During the exclusive interview to be aired later Sunday, an old quote by Barak was cited, in which he claimed that Iran was too clever to fire nuclear weapons at Israel.

The defense minister said in response to his prior comment that he had no doubt that Iran was moving toward nuclear missile technology. He added that he could not imagine a world order in which Iran has nuclear weapons. He said Tehran was clearly headed toward nuclear missile capability.

Barak and Amanpour (photo courtesy of CNN)

The interviewer reminded the minister of comments by an American official that pressuring Iran could push Tehran into striking Israel. He said he that while he does understand the principle behind the US official’s comments, he does not believe that the situation has reached this point.

Barak did say that the Iranian regime was planning to attack Israel via Hezbollah or another proxy.

He noted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in Damascus two days ago, and said he must have discussed his future plans there, as he spoke of a “new Middle East with no Zionists and no colonialists.”

He added, “this guy, you know, happened to develop not new Avatar-like longbows… but a nuclear weapon. So we somehow have to take this situation seriously.”

‘We’ll not run, we’ll hit Lebanon’

The defense minister stressed that Israel was “not interested in a conflict in the north or in the east. But if it is imposed upon us, we know how to respond.”

In the same breath, he emphasized that the Israeli government and the IDF would show no restraint if faced with an attempt by Hezbollah to ignite the region.

“We say loud and clear: We are not interested in a conflict, we will not initiate one, but if we will be attacked… Namely, our civilian population, because this militia happens to have more than 40,000 rockets and missiles that cover all of Israel. We will not run or chase any individual Hezbollah fighter. We will hit Lebanon and whatever is under the responsibility of Lebanon’s government.”

Amanpour also inquired on Barak’s opinion regarding the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, and noted that the defense minister has a rich history of secret operations, including the assassination of Palestinians.

Barak said he has nothing to say about the incident in Dubai, and corrected Amanpour, stressing that he “never killed Palestinians per se. I killed terrorists who were directly responsible for the killing — indiscriminate killing – of civilians.” He added that this is any government’s main role – to protect its citizens from murder.

‘Goldstone Report encourages terror’

He was asked what he thinks about the “coincidence” that most of the stolen identities used in the Dubai assassination belonged to Israeli citizens. In response he told Amanpour that when he says he has nothing more to say about a subject, that this means he really has nothing more to say and has no intention of talking.

But Amanpour insisted, and asked if Barak was denying any involvement in the affair. He responded saying he has nothing to say. The interviewer then asked the minister if he believes in the efficiency of targeted killings, as in the infamous case in Jordan. Barak responded saying she could ask him about this in the next interview, since any response he would give now would be taken as an implied answer to her previous question. He once again stressed that he has nothing to say on the subject of the Mabhouh killing.

Addressing the Goldstone Report, Barak referred to it as “biased, extorted and totally unexplainable in my judgment and it even encourages somehow terror.” He insisted that the report would not change the policy of the government or the Israel Defense Forces in future wars.

“We always try to improve ourselves, but we don’t need the Goldstone report for this. We started an investigation into the details of what happened (in Gaza) long before Goldstone wrote his report,” he said.

Amanpour also raised the risk of arrest threatening Israeli officials and the firm stance voiced by Knesset Member Livni, who says she does not fear being arrested in London. Barak responded that that was probably the only issue he and the opposition leader were in full agreement about.

DEBKA.

Mabhouh’s assassins

Hamas senior operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh‘s death in Dubai on January 19 had three objectives, all of which were attained:
1. It eliminated the Palestinian extremist Hamas’ most able and resourceful manager of weapons and munitions procurement who had expanded its network of world suppliers.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s counter-terror sources reveal that Mabhouh landed in Dubai last month on the first leg of a trip to China and Sudan. In Beijing, he had appointments with unofficial Chinese military contacts to negotiate Hamas’ first ever purchase of Chinese weapons. They would have been consigned to Hamas training camps in Sudan which Mabhouh founded and supervised in person.
It was he who arranged and executed the secret conduits for transferring weapons from Iran to Hamas units in the Gaza strip and Lebanon via Sudan.
The weapons convoy route he set up between Sudan and the Sinai Peninsula was bombed three times in early 2009 by the Israel Air force. It was then that he resorted to Iranian merchant ships as an alternative arms-smuggling route to Gaza.
In his five years as supreme gunrunner, Mabhouh carved himself the position of liaison officer between Hamas and Tehran.
His exceptional industry and talent placed the key Hamas operative at the top of Israel’s hit list.
2. The Israeli Mossad found it necessary to post a clear message at a point in time when the Middle East appeared to be veering ever closer to a major conflict, one which threatened to pit Israel against Iran for the first time and force the Jewish state to stand up and fight Tehran’s allies, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas, on several fronts.
The message was this: It is in the power of Israeli undercover agents to reach any corner of the Middle East, including Iran, expertly carry out their missions and return home unharmed.

Dubai police spills data to trip Israel into an admission

This show of bravado was intended to give Iranian leaders and their allies pause to consider whether it is truly in their best interests to carry on an unconventional arms race of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons against Israel, at the risk of having their military, technological and intelligence machines sabotaged and their top executives knocked off.
3. Dubai was targeted as the established stamping ground for Iran, Hizballah, Hamas, al Qaeda and a host of radical and fringe groups. The emirate has become a de luxe hub for facilitating their covert movements around the world and their nefarious transactions. Its services have thus far helped Iran sidestep international sanctions, imposed by the UN Security Council for its nuclear violations, to the point that Dubai’s banking system, international airport, free trade zone and big port have been swallowed up and integrated into Iran’s military logistical system.
The Mabhouh operation was also meant to prove to Tehran that Dubai and its rich facilities were now accessible to Israel’s long arm and squarely within its sights.
All three of these objectives were fully achieved without leaving a scrap of proof implicating Israel in the death of the Hamas commander.
Dubai Police Commander-in-Chief Lieut. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan published a wealth of video material from the security cameras posted around the emirate, showing the twenty-six suspects moving freely in and out of Dubai’s international airport and shopping centers and switching hotels.
The police chief also released details of the British, Irish French, German and Australian passports they carried in the names of innocent Israelis of dual nationality.

The hit team controlled Dubai’s security cameras

By his apparent openness, Lieut. Gen. Khalfan hoped to compromise Israel’s ties with the governments whose passports were used or faked (as though this is not standard tradecraft for all the secret services of the governments concerned) and trip Israel up into admitting responsibility for the assassination.
Nonetheless, the police chief held back an important detail.
The CCTV cameras tracked the death squad’s members leaving room 237 of the Bustan Rotana luxury hotel – directly opposite Mabhouh’s room – at 20:24 on January 19. They were filmed opening the door-lock to his room with a special electronic gadget. The cameras followed Mabhouh as he came up from the hotel lobby and stepped into his room – and a death trap.
At that point, the clip breaks off until 20:43 when the killers leave room 230, using their gadgets to lock the door and shoot the bolt from the outside to simulate a classical locked-room murder mystery.
The Dubai police were thus left short of the vital 19-minute segment of tape during which Mabhouh was done to death. He seemed to have died of natural causes. There were no signs of violence on the body.
Members of the hit team were in a position, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s intelligence sources, to control the security cameras posted at the points they passed in Dubai because the local CCTV network was Israel-made and installed.
They had the means to switch the cameras off at will or let them capture their own movements and those of their target. This provided visual evidence of their freedom to come and go at will and at all times, while leaving the Dubai police without clues for the investigators to work with. There was nothing in the video footage to fix the identities of the suspicious characters flitting on and off-screen as Mossad or any other hit-persons – or even the same people who killed Mabhouh.

Non-existent assassins move freely within Iran itself

In any case, the video-clips and the passports are useless as leads for another reason: All 26 men and women tabbed as suspects were disguised from head to toe. The faces shown to the security cameras or taken from fake passports were fabricated by makeup artists. The suspects themselves expertly switched identities every time they moved from one venue to another.
The way they departed the emirate was pure brass. While twenty-three flew out by air to their various destinations, the three Australian passport-bearers chose to exit by sea. They took the ferry plying the Dubai route to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, which is also home to Revolutionary Guards headquarters. From there, they caught a domestic flight to the Ayatollah Khomeini international airport of Tehran and boarded a flight to Bangkok.
In other words, three of the men suspected of eliminating the high-value Palestinian agent who managed the links between Iran and a key Middle East terrorist group, demonstratively entered Iran itself and reached its capital.
They arrived and left with Iranian intelligence none the wiser until after the event, thereby informing the Islamic Republic that it was as vulnerable as any other country to penetration by alien agents armed with high-quality intelligence tradecraft.

New U.N. watchdog head faces rising tension with Iran | Reuters.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano of Japan attends a meeting at Vienna’s UN headquarters July 3, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Herwig Prammer

VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. atomic watchdog’s new chief will present a tougher approach to Iran at a meeting of member states starting on Monday where clashes loom over his suggestion Tehran may be trying to design a nuclear weapon.

Iran was likely to argue Yukiya Amano lacks competence and independence from Western powers, who want to impose harsher sanctions on Tehran, as tensions grow over its escalation of nuclear fuel enrichment and suspicions of illicit bomb research.

Amano, who took over from Mohamed ElBaradei in December, was seen distilling the tougher line contained in his February 18 report on Iran when he opens a week-long meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) governing board.

“The report is clearer and harsher in tone than those from ElBaradei. He will give a summary in the same tone as the report, no more, no less,” said a European diplomat who like others asked for anonymity due to political sensitivities.

Amano’s approach is important because the discussion at the 35-nation board in Vienna is expected to feed into deliberations on slapping harsher sanctions on Iran taking place among the six world powers at the level of the U.N. Security Council.

Some diplomats said Iran might try an unusual personal attack on Amano, suggesting the veteran Japanese diplomat is a lackey of the West, to deflect attention from his report’s findings and try to rally developing nations behind it.

“(Iran) wanted to kick him as soon as the report was published. They will try and focus on the personal, not the substantial,” said another European diplomat said.

Iran’s foreign minister has already criticized Amano, particularly his suggestion that the Islamic Republic may be working on developing a nuclear-armed missile now, rather than having done so only in the past.

“Mr Amano is new to the job and clearly has a long way to go before he can reach the experience held by Mohammed ElBaradei,” Manouchehr Mottaki told Iranian broadcaster Al Alam last week.

“The report was Amano’s first and, like many other first reports, it was seriously flawed.”

Western diplomats have praised the new director-general for what they see as his matter-of-fact treatment of the IAEA probe into “possible military dimensions” to Iran’s nuclear activity.

Amano omitted Iran’s repeated flat denials and denunciations of “forged” information and did not flag that the intelligence was not fully authenticated, as ElBaradei’s reports often did.

“The Iran report shows what the ‘Amano effect’ means in practical terms: an IAEA staff unburdened and unleashed to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” a senior Western diplomat said.

OPEN QUESTIONS

IAEA governors were not expected to rebuke Iran in a resolution as they did at their last meeting in November, when Iran was censured for hiding a uranium enrichment site.

But Western nations were likely to condemn it over an IAEA complaint that Iran had begun feeding low-enriched uranium (LEU) into centrifuges for higher refinement before inspectors could get to the scene at its Natanz pilot enrichment facility.

Iran said it started higher enrichment because it was frustrated at the collapse of an IAEA-backed plan for big powers to provide it with fuel rods for nuclear medicine made from uranium refined up to 20 percent purity.

Some diplomats also questioned why Iran had set aside the great bulk of its LEU stockpile for higher-scale enrichment when it lacks the technology to eventually convert it into fuel rods for the Tehran medical research reactor.

Iran’s enrichment escalation has unnerved the West since advancing from 20 percent to the bomb-grade level of 90 percent purity would need only a few months, much faster than reaching the initial 3.5 percent stage suitable for power plants.

Iran has also told the IAEA it is building a production line at its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan to turn powder derived from LEU into uranium metal, raising concerns because this material has both weapons and civilian energy applications.

IAEA governors will also assess a separate Amano report voicing suspicion that Syria engaged in covert nuclear work at a desert site bombed by Israel in 2007 because uranium particles were found there by U.N. inspectors in June the following year. Syria has rebuffed IAEA requests for follow-up investigation.

(Additional reporting by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Noah Barkin)

Israel enjoys near record support in US, Gallup finds.

Support for Israel among Americans is at a 19-year high, a February Gallup survey of American attitudes toward international affairs has found.

According to the telephone survey of 1,025 American adults conducted February 1-3, just 15 percent of Americans side with the Palestinians, while 23% either said they support both sides, neither side or had no opinion.

The support for Israel marks an upward trend since the mid-1990s, when Gallup measured readings as low as 38%, rising to 58%-59% between 2006 and 2009. According to a Gallup Corporation statement, The current level of support was last seen during the 1991 Gulf War.

The majority of the increase came among Republicans and independents, while figures among Democrats have remained the same in recent years, Gallup said.

Among Republicans, support for Israel rose from 77% in the past several years to 85% in the current poll.

Meanwhile, optimism regarding the future of the peace process was at a 13-year low.

Just 30% of respondents said “there will come a time” when “Israel and the Arab nations will be able to settle their differences and live in peace;” 67% did not believe this.

While noting that the current figures are similar to last year’s, they are among the most pessimistic findings since Gallup began asking the question in 1997, bested only by the 27% optimism rate in the midst of the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Optimism was slightly higher among Democrats (39%) than Republicans (25%) and independents (26%), perhaps reflecting faith in Democratic President Barack Obama’s recent peace initiatives.

One clue to the pessimistic attitude of most Americans may be in their low opinion of the Palestinian Authority. Among 20 countries listed by Gallup that Americans were asked about in the poll, the Palestinian Authority came in among the lowest in approval rating, with just 20% approval. A Gallup Corporation explanation of its survey noted that, though low, this was actually one of the highest approval rates enjoyed by the PA since 2000.

Muslim World: The northern tinder box.

Photo by: AP

By JONATHAN SPYER
26/02/2010 16:36

Warlike tones from Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah are by now familiar. But what is revealed by their most recent statements?

IDF to distribute Gas Masks today

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

Damascus celebration

Iran further consolidated its anti-US coalition and honed its hard edge against Israel this week with two important defense treaties signed with Syria (covering Lebanon) and Qatar, home to the biggest US air base outside America. These treaties opened doors for Iranian troops to be stationed in all three countries. According to debkafile‘s military sources, they are already present in Syria and Lebanon.
On this high note, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian president Bashar Assad and Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Thursday, Feb. 25, wound up their talks in Damascus – to which Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was co-opted – on joint military preparations for a Middle East war.
That day too, Israel completed a five-day command exercise against a possible four-front assault by the Tehran-led coalition.

Our sources reveal that after his talks, the Shiite Iranian president make the extraordinary gesture towards the Arab countries he is wooing of attending a two-hour prayer session with Assad at a Sunni mosque in Damascus. Asked about his Shiite sensitivities, Ahmad said, “We are all one Ummah.”
Together with Nasrallah, the pair later appeared before the press to scoff at US policies, celebrate their friendship and predict Israel’s early annihilation, the day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a U.S. Senate subcommittee the United States had recently urged Syria to “begin to move away” from Iran following the appointment of its first ambassador to Damascus in five years.
Ultimately, she said, the United States expects Assad to curb his ties with Iran and his support for militant groups like the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip.
Assad drew laughs when he told the correspondents that he and Ahmadinejad had just signed “a separation accord, but because of a bad translation “we ended up signing an accord scrapping visas.
debkafile‘s military sources report that this clause facilitates the passage of Iranian military into Syria and between Syria and Lebanon.

The Iranian president suggested jocularly that “no-one had enlightened her” about the depth of Iranian-Syrian relations and called on the United States to “pack up and leave the region.” “A new Middle East – one without Zionists and imperialists – was quickly emerging,” he said.
Assad expressed Syria’s full support for Iraq’s uranium enrichment activities. “To forbid an independent state the right to enrichment amounts to a new colonialist process in the region,” he said.

In Doha, Iran’s defense minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi and Qatari chief of staff Gen. Hamad bin Ali Attiya put their signatures Wednesday, Feb. 24 to military contracts providing for “the exchange of technical and expert delegations, the expansion of cooperation in personnel training and joint campaigns against terrorism and elements behind regional insecurity.”
This language covers the dispatch of Iranian officers and soldiers to Doha, a sight the US and Saudi Arabia hoped never to witness. The “elements behind regional insecurity” refer to the United States and Israel.

The big US air base was established at Al Udeid, Qatar, to keep the Persian Gulf and its oil resources safe and curb Iranian expansion. That its rulers were now willing to host the Iranian defense minister and establish military ties with Tehran is another landmark in that expansion drive and a serious setback for America’s regional standing.

In U.S., Barak signals Israeli autonomy against Iran | World | Reuters.

By Dan Williams

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israel’s perspective on Iran’s nuclear program differs from that of the United States, and the two may part ways on what action to take, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday.

Washington’s clout over its Middle East ally is under scrutiny after Israel’s veiled threats to attack Iran preemptively if international diplomacy fails to rein in Tehran’s uranium enrichment, a process with bomb-making potential.

The United States this week said it did not want to hurt the Iranian people with “crippling” sanctions against Iran’s energy sector, measures Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as the only viable diplomatic solution.

“There is of course a certain difference in perspective and a difference in judgment and a difference in the internal clock, a difference in capabilities,” Barak told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank, when asked about Israeli-U.S. discussions about Iran.

“I don’t think that there is a need to coordinate in this regard. There should be understanding on the exchange of views, but we do not need to coordinate everything,” said Barak, who was in Washington for strategic talks.

Barak, a centrist in Netanyahu’s right-leaning coalition government, reiterated Israel’s argument that an Iranian bomb would destabilize the region by sparking an arms race and emboldening Islamist guerrillas sponsored by Tehran.

“Probably from this corner of the world it (Iran’s nuclear program) doesn’t change the script dramatically,” he said, speaking in English. “From a closer distance, in Israel, it looks like a tipping point for the whole regional order, with quite assured consequences for the wider world.”

While he played down the specter of Iran — which denies having hostile designs — trying to wipe out Israel in a nuclear strike, Barak urged the United States and other powers to keep “all options on the table” including preemptive force.

Israel bombed Iraq’s atomic reactor in 1981 and launched a similar strike against Syria in 2007. But many analysts believe it lacks the means to deliver lasting damage to Iranian nuclear facilities which are numerous, distant and well-defended.

Yet Barak hinted at Israel’s willingness to go it alone, saying: “We felt very proud that we never asked the Americans to come and fight for us. We basically … to paraphrase Churchill, we said, ‘Give us the tools and we will do the job.'”

He praised the Obama administration for making “the utmost effort” to resolve the standoff with Iran diplomatically.

Voicing reluctance to see a new Middle East war, the United States has boosted support for Israel’s strategic defences. That has led some analysts to speculate that Israel, which is assumed to have the region’s only atomic arsenal, could eventually be forced to enter a U.S.-led “containment” policy on Iran.