Petraeus: Israel Might Decide to Attack Iran

Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress at 1:23 PM on April 1, 2009.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today, Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, said that Israel may take “preemptive military action” against Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb:

Army General David Petraeus told Congress that “the Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it.”

While Iran insists its nuclear program is intended for peaceful power generation, Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, said “Iranian officials have consistently failed to provide the assurances and transparency necessary for international acceptance and verification.”

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment to Bloomberg on Petraeus’ comments, which come a day after the new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned that President Obama “must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.”

Tagged as: iran, israel, attack

Matt Corley is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.