[ Jerusalem Post] Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon - In a series of consultations apparently aimed at coordinating policies against the Iranian nuclear threat, Defense Minister Ehud Barak will head to the U.S. on Monday for talks at the Pentagon, days after Mossad chief Meir Dagan was in Washington for meetings with key intelligence officials. Sources say Israel is urgently trying to convince the U.S. that Iran is closer to passing the nuclear threshold than Washington believes. A week after Barak's visit, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi will head to Washington for his own round of talks. Barak told a meeting of the Labor Party faction: "Israel is the strongest country in the region and we have proven in the past that we are not deterred from acting when our vital interests are at stake." A senior U.S. official recently said there was a discrepancy of six to 12 months between the time Israel believed Iran would pass the nuclear point of no return, and when the U.S. felt Teheran will have mastered the nuclear cycle.
2008-07-11 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive