US prepares military strike on Iran

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the Pentagon has readied plans to carry out a military strike on Iran if diplomacy fails in the dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

“The fundamental premise is that neither the United States or the international community is going to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. We will do everything we can to prevent them from developing a weapon,” Panetta said in an interview with ABC’s This Week on Sunday.

Iran says that according to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), all signatories have the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful applications and no country should have the right to possess nuclear weapons.

The NPT also allows Iran and other member states to enrich uranium to produce fuel.

"One of the things that we do at the Defense Department is plan. And we have - we have plans to be able to implement any contingency we have to in order to defend ourselves," Panetta stated.

He asserted that the international community is united on the issue but expressed hope the dispute could be resolved “diplomatically.”


/PressTV/