Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta said on Wednesday that Israel knew it needed to coordinate its strategy on Iran and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aware that if Israel were to independently attack Iran it would lead to “big trouble.”
Panetta told political quarterly Global Viewpoint on Monday that it is clear that Israel is concerned about the possibility of Iran producing nuclear weapons, but added that Israel's security would be better served if the government worked together with international powers to “curb the threat”.



Panetta said that the threat posed by Iran "has our full attention," asserting that despite the Obama administration's strategic decision to engage Teheran diplomatically, "no one is naïve about the challenges."

Meanwhile, an Israeli official said that Israel will be forced to take on Iran's contentious nuclear program alone once US President Barack Obama's overture for dialogue with Tehran fails. The official was quoted by Channel 10 as saying that Obama's insistence on engagement with Iran would force Israel to make a "difficult decision" on the matter by the end of 2009.

Panetta continued, "The judgment of the U.S. intelligence community is that Iran, at a minimum, is keeping open the option to develop deliverable nuclear weapons. It is our judgment that Iran halted weaponization in 2003, but it continues to develop uranium enrichment technology and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. The last thing we need in the Middle East is a nuclear arms race."

IRAN COULD HAVE NUKES IN 1 TO 3 YEARS: EXPERTS
On the other hand, a group of US and Russian scientists and experts said in a report issued Tuesday that Iran could produce a simple nuclear device in one to three years and a nuclear warhead in another five years after that.

They said Iran is also making advances in rocket technology and could develop a ballistic missile capable of firing a 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) nuclear warhead up to 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) in perhaps six to eight years.

The EastWest Institute, a nonpartisan organization which focuses on global challenges, said it brought six US experts and six Russian experts together for the first time to produce a joint threat assessment on Iran's nuclear and missile potential. It said key conclusions were presented in February to US National Security Advisor, Gen. James Jones, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

The experts' consensus report, issued by the institute said "while Iran is continuing to enrich uranium, it is not clear whether it has taken the decision to produce nuclear weapons."

"It would then be in the range of one to three years...before a nuclear explosive device could be produced," the report said.
While Iran could, perhaps in six or eight years, develop a missile with a nuclear warhead and a 2,000-kilometer (1,200 mile) range - double its longest-range missile at present - the report said it's virtually impossible to predict how long it would take the country to produce a modern intercontinental ballistic missile. Without additional outside technology, the report said it would be at least 10 to 15 years, adding that there is no evidence Iran has decided to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The scientists and experts concluded that there is no imminent threat of Iran firing intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles - and if there was such a threat, the proposed U.S. missile defense system in Europe would not provide a dependable defense against it. SUMBER:ALMANAR