International Business Times:

US rejects Netanyahu’s call to threaten Iran with 'military action'
By SreeRam Banda

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates rejected Israeli prime minister's call for a 'credible military threat' against Iran to ensure it does not obtain nuclear arsenal. However, he suggested that military action still remains an option.

The defense secretary, who is in Australia, told reporters on Monday that the United States disagrees that only a credible military threat can get Iran to take the actions it needs to end its nuclear weapons programme.

"We are prepared to do what is necessary but at this point we continue to believe that the political-economic approach that we taking is in fact having an impact in Iran," he said.

The response comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urging U.S. Vice president Joe Biden to take a tougher line against Iran. Netanyahu, who is currently on a five-day visit to the U.S., stated that economic sanctions are not doing enough to curtail the Iranian nuclear programme.

"The only way to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons is by creating a credible threat of military action against it if it does not halt its race to acquire a nuclear bomb," Netanyahu reportedly told Biden in a private conversation.

Robert Gates, however, maintained the latest international sanctions are hitting Iran harder than that country's ruling regime had expected, and should be allowed more time.

United States and other western governments have said that Iran's uranium enrichment programme is aimed at building atomic weapons. Fresh United Nations and European Union sanctions banning investments in oil and gas and on financial transactions have been imposed against Tehran in recent months. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, however, denied the accusations stating that the programme is to enable fuel production for nuclear power plants the country is building for civilian use.

Meanwhile, Iran has announced it will resume nuclear talks from November 10. The talks, which include Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the US, have been stalled since October 2009 when the two sides met in Geneva. Iranian authorities, however, urged EU to shift the site of the upcoming talks to Turkey rather than Vienna.