As I noted yesterday, there were a host of reports over the weekend that seemed to hint that the United States and other nations was signaling to Israel that an attack on Iran wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Today, there’s a little back-pedaling from that position:
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday strongly denied that the United States had given Israel an approval to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Asked by CNN whether Washington had given Israel a green light for such an attack, Obama answered: “Absolutely not.”
In the interview, which was broadcast from Russia, where Obama is on an official visit, he added: “We can’t dictate to other countries what their security interests are.
“What is also true is, it is the policy of the United States to try to resolve the issue of Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Obama said.
This would be achieved “through diplomatic channels,” he added.
(…)
tate Department spokesman Ian Kelly, however, denied that the vice president was giving Israel American approval for an attack on Iran.
“I certainly would not want to give a green light to any kind of military action,” Kelly said, while at the same time reiterating Israel’s right to determine its security needs as a sovereign state.
“We’re not going to dictate its actions,” Kelly added. “We’re also committed to Israel’s security. And we share Israel’s deep concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.”
While it might be easy to ascribe this to mixed signals from the Obama Administration, or another case of Joe Biden talking without thinking, there’s a good possibility that there’s something else going on here.
As much as we might like to, the United States simply can’t come out and say that we want Israel to attack Iran, and that’s not what Biden said on Sunday. At the same time, though, if the U.S. truly wanted to publicly discourage Israel from an attack, it could do so, loudly, and the message would be heard. Instead, we’ve got comments, from Obama, Biden, and the State Department, that the U.S. intends to pursue diplomatic options with Iran but that Israel “has the right to determine it’s security needs.”
I think we can take that as a signal to Iran that diplomacy will only go so far, and that Washington can’t control what Tel Aviv does.
Whether the mullahs in Tehran get the message is another question.
