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Panetta denies trying to send signal about Israel striking Iran
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was not trying to send a signal about Israel attacking Iran when he was quoted in a column last month saying a strike is likely.
He declined once again to discuss the column from The Washington Post’s David Ignatius when asked about it by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) at a Senate hearing Tuesday on the Pentagon budget.
“No, I usually don’t comment on columnists’ ideas about what I’m thinking,” Panetta said. “It’s a dangerous game to get into.”
The column did not quote Panetta directly but said that he “believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June.”
Panetta acknowledged that he had a conversation with Ignatius, but would not comment further. Generally, he said, the United States has a “common cause” with Israel and the international community to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“We’ve made very clear that they are not to develop a nuclear weapon, that they are not to close Straits of Hormuz,” Panetta said.
Iran says that its nuclear program is for producing energy, but the United States and its allies accuse Iran of planning to build nuclear weapons.
Panetta said that the international community has taken strong steps with economic sanctions to isolate Iran. “My preference, my view, is we keep the international community together,” he said.
