Panetta: Iran will not be allowed nukes – CBS News
Panetta: Iran will not be allowed nukes – CBS News.
(CBS News)
Vodpod videos no longer available.The U.S. Secretary of Defense said Monday night that Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. In an interview, Leon Panetta, said despite the efforts to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program, the Iranians have reached a point where they can assemble a bomb in a year or potentially less.
Secretary Panetta spoke with us at the end of an overseas trip during which he reviewed strategy in Afghanistan and formally ended the war in Iraq.
CBS News anchor Scott Pelley caught up with Secretary Panetta on his tour last week of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. On the way home, he boarded the jet nicknamed “The Doomsday Plane.” This is the command post where he and the president would direct a nuclear war. In an interview for “60 Minutes,” we sat down in the compartment where he would execute the commander-in-chief’s orders. Panetta told CBS News that Iran needs only one year to build a nuclear weapon.
Pelley: So are you saying that Iran can have a nuclear weapon in 2012?
Panetta: It would probably be about a year before they can do it. Perhaps a little less. But one proviso, Scott, is if they have a hidden facility somewhere in Iran that may be enriching fuel.
Pelley: So that they can develop a weapon even more quickly…
Panetta: On a faster track….
Pelley: Than we believe….
Panetta: That’s correct.
Pelley: If the Israelis decide to launch a military strike to prevent that weapon from being built, what sort of complications does that raise for you?
Panetta: Well, we share the same common concern. The United States does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us and that’s a red line, obviously, for the Israelis. If we have to do it we will deal with it.
Pelley: You just said if we have to do it we will come and do it. What is it?
Panetta: If they proceed and we get intelligence that they are proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon then we will take whatever steps necessary to stop it.
Pelley: Including military steps?
Panetta: There are no options off the table
Pelley: A nuclear weapon in Iran is…
Panetta: Unacceptable.
Panetta also told CBS News that while Iran needs a year or less to assemble a weapon, he has no indication yet that the Iranians have made the decision to go ahead.
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WarSclerotic 
December 20, 2011 at 10:21 AM
Reblogged this on Basil Wheel.
December 20, 2011 at 10:56 AM
Ye…ye…We have heard all this too much , already . May someone tell me if those people- Obama , P(l)anetta & comp- have any shame left for themselves ? At least , shut up . Don’t think we all are a bunch of fools.
December 21, 2011 at 1:03 AM
I agree with Reuven Pedatzur –
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/iran-is-too-rational-to-attack-israel-1.402481 – that a nuclear armed Iran will make the Middle East a safer place. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I think that he is right. In any case, we have no realistic alternative.
December 21, 2011 at 3:32 AM
One the things you must keep in mind here is, this is religious not political. So the lessons learned during the cold war about mutually assured destruction do not work here. Ahmadinejad has said time and time again that this is about bringing Al-Mahdi back. Also he has said how he feels that Israel needs to be wiped off the earth.
To folks like him it does not matter how many people get hurt as long as he does what he thinks is religiously right. I would have to conclude this nut would use the bomb if he had one.
Really the only realistic alternative is to get the first punch in and hit him hard. Just like in an old street fight. Even with that said we still might loose. But waiting tell he has the capability to nuke us is not an alternative.