By Simon Mann
IRAN is developing a missile capable of hitting the east coast of the US, according to an Israeli government minister, intensifying western anxiety over the regime's nuclear ambitions.
The fresh alert was further heightened by reports that the US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, believes a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities by Israel looms likely and could come as soon as April.
A new medium-range missile is fired from a naval ship during Velayat-90 war game on Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran.Credit: Reuters
The increasingly murky issue of Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities is a prime focus of US foreign policy deliberations. President Barack Obama insisted in last month's State of the Union address that he would ''take no options off the table'' in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal.
But contrary to assertions that the chief threat was to Iran's near-neighbour, Israel's Minister for Strategic Affairs, Moshe Yaalon, said the missile project was ''aimed at America, not us''.
Mr Yaalon made the claim at a public policy conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. He said the missile being built at an Iranian research facility that was damaged by a mysterious explosion in November was a long-range missile prototype with a range of 9600 kilometres, enough to reach the US.
Mr Yaalon said that only the threat of a punishing military strike would compel Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. ''The West has the ability to strike but as long as Iran isn't convinced that there's a determination to follow through with it, they'll continue with their manipulations,'' he said.
At the same conference, Israel's Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, said military action needed to be considered if economic sanctions failed to deter Iran and the window for action was closing fast. But he said there was now widespread global understanding that an attack may be necessary.
Several of the Republicans now vying for their party's 2012 presidential nomination have attacked the Obama administration for not threatening more clearly a strike against Iran should it continue to defy international demands for greater transparency of its nuclear program. They have accused Mr Obama of leaving the tough talk mostly to Israel.
The missile claim came as the former US defence secretary Robert Gates, now the chancellor of America's second oldest university, William and Mary, warned about the dangers of a war with Iran, telling CNN that ''if Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out of''. He added: ''This is, I think, one of the toughest foreign policy problems I have ever seen since entering the government 45 years ago.''
Mr Panetta's view that Israel would go it alone, possibly in April or May, was first reported by the Washington Post, which said he was alarmed at the prospect of a unilateral strike. CNN later said it had confirmed the story via a source within the administration.
In Brussels for a meeting of NATO defence ministers, Mr Panetta declined to discuss in detail the reports, but said: ''Israel has indicated that they're considering this [in public statements], and we have indicated our concerns.''
Analysts believe only US bunker-busting bombs could penetrate deep enough underground to take out Iran's nuclear facilities, explaining Israel's urgency in seeking to co-opt US support for a strike. Washington and the European Union have imposed increasingly tough sanctions on Iran, prompting the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to warn it would close the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if it was prevented from exporting its crude oil, a move the US would not tolerate.
with Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg