Iran looms over visit by Gates to Israel

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

c.2009 New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is to be in Jerusalem on Monday for the first time in two and a half years to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in talks that a senior U.S. military official said would be characterized by Israel’s growing anxiety over Iran’s nuclear program.

The official, who asked not to be named under Defense Department rules, said that the trip was part of a regular consultation and that Gates was not traveling to Israel “to roll out a map and do contingency planning for some strike on Iran.” Israel has made it clear that it could strike the plants at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, although it has agreed to the Obama administration’s policy of first trying to engage Iran in talks.

But the official, who was briefing reporters in advance of Gates’ trip, acknowledged that the Israelis did not think the diplomacy would work and that they were losing patience.

“Are they anxious?” said the military official, referring to the Israelis. “Yes, they’re anxious. But we’re not having regular conversations where they’re coming in and saying, ‘Stop your engagement now, bomb Iran tomorrow.”’

President Barack Obama has given Iran until late September to accept an offer of talks to give up its nuclear ambitions, and until the end of the year to show some progress on the issue.

A Middle East analyst familiar with Israeli thinking, who also asked not to be named while speaking about the topic, said that the meetings were expected to be more about coordination and reassurance that the United States stood by Israel and that it was too soon to get into discussions of any military action.

The Obama administration has sent mixed messages on its views of an Israeli strike. Top Pentagon officials, including Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said repeatedly that an Israeli strike on Iran would be “very destabilizing” to the region. But this month, Vice President Joe Biden said that the United States “cannot dictate” Israel’s decision on military action.

Two days later Obama pulled back, telling CNN that the United States was “absolutely not” giving Israel its approval for a strike.

Both Israel and the United States estimate that Iran is within one year to three years of developing a nuclear-weapons ability.