US admiral: US, NATO should be ready for Iranian missile attack on Israel

US commander of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, Admiral James Winnefeld, earlier this week said that there is a threat that Iran would launch a ballistic missile strike against Israel and that the US and NATO should prepare for this scenario. In an article, Winnefeld wrote for the US Naval Institute he describes the possibility of an offensive strike of ballistic missiles fired from Iran towards Israel. Winnefeld calls this "by far the most likely employment of ballistic missiles in the world today, and it demands our immediate attention in the event of a need for a US or NATO response."

In related news, Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, Admiral Michael Mullen, who visited Israel last week said that the presence of the missile defence fleet in the Mediterranean will play a role in intercepting Iranian missiles, if they were fired towards Israel. The missile defence boats of the Sixth Fleet have been practicing the interception of Shahab-3 missiles, which are the type of missiles in Iran's possession. In a briefing to reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday, Mullen said that "Israel remains a vital and trusted military ally in the Middle East, which faces very real security threats and the tyranny of what I call close-quarters geography."

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