Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — The United States is said to have completed plans for a
military strike option to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, asserted that the administration
of President Barack Obama has drafted plans for military options against
Iran. Shapiro said the military option was now “fully available” to the
United States.

“It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the
use of pressure than to use military force,” Shapiro said.

In remarks to the Israel Bar Association on May 15, Shapiro became the first senior American official to report a U.S. military option against Teheran. Reports from Washington over the last year asserted that President Barack Obama has refused to discuss the prospect of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program.

“But that doesn’t mean that [military] option is not fully available —
not just available, but it’s ready,” Shapiro was quoted by Israel Army Radio on May 17. “The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready.”

This was not the first time Shapiro assured Israel that Washington was preparing a military option against Teheran. In January, the ambassador
told an Israeli newspaper that Washington was “guaranteeing that the
military option is ready and available to the president at the moment he
decides to use it.”

Shapiro’s latest remarks were broadcast as Israeli Defense Minister Ehud
Barak met senior administration officials in Washington to discuss Iran and
missile defense. Barak as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were
said to have been the strongest advocates of an Israeli or U.S. air strike
on Iran.

  Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Dan Shapiro, Ehud Barak, Israel Army Radio, strike on Iran’s nuclear program, U.S. military strike option against Iran is ‘fully available’