Today during an interview with “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer the secretary cleared up any confusion that may have resulted from his December comments when he reiterated U.S. and IAEA intelligence assessments that Iran is not trying to develop a nuclear weapon and is rather working toward “a nuclear capability”:
Secretary Leon Panetta: …I think the pressure of the sanctions, I think the pressure of diplomatic pressures from everywhere — Europe, United States, elsewhere– is working to put pressure on them, to make them understand that they cannot continue to do what they’re doing. Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that’s what concerns us. And our red line to Iran is do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us.
Panetta added that an attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz by the Iranians would be responded to, but did not detail how. When asked how the U.S. would respond if the Israelis attacked Iran, Panetta said the U.S. “would have to be prepared to protect our forces in that situation. And that’s what we’d be concerned about.”
]]>