US rejects Israeli call to strike at Iran

Israel has told the US to keep a military strike option open to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, a suggestion rejected by Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the suggestion reportedly to the US Vice President Joe Biden during talks in New Orleans on Sunday. "Tehran would be determined to produce nuclear weapons unless it thinks a military strike is a real option." Israeli media reported Netanyahu as having told Biden quoting high officials. But, Tel Aviv call for a "credible military threat" was rejected by the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates who said that international sanctions were hurting Tehran more severely than Iran anticipated.

Gates, who is in Australia for a military dialogue with country's leaders, said although military action against Iran remained an option the threat

of force was not the only way to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. "We know they (Israel) are concerned about the impact of sanctions. But these are biting more deeply than they anticipated and we are working hard at this," the US Defence Secretary told reporters.

Gates was reacting to media reports from Jerusalem which quoted Israeli prime minister as saying that a credible threat of military action is the only way to ensure that Iran will rethink its nuclear programme, Haaretz Daily reported that according to Israeli estimates, the only time Iran had paused its nuclear programme was in 2003, when Tehran believed that a military strike was imminent.

US media reports said Obama administration while not ruling out a military option, has so far stressed sanctions and diplomacy as its preferred course in dealing with Iran.