BICOM

Iran has reached a point where it can assemble a bomb in a year or potentially less, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said during an interview with CBS News late last night. Panetta said that it would probably take a year for Tehran to assemble a nuclear bomb, but said that one provision is if the Iranians have a hidden facility that “may be enriching fuel.”

The US Secretary of Defense went on to say that the US and Israel share a common concern. “The United States does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us and that’s a red line, obviously, for the Israelis. If we have to do it we will deal with it,” he added.

When asked what steps the US would be willing to take in order to prevent a nuclear Iran, Panetta said that if intelligence is received that Tehran is proceeding with developing a nuclear weapon then “we will take whatever steps necessary to stop it.”  He stressed that, “There are no options off the table,” and that a nuclear Iran is “unacceptable”.

Earlier this month, at Washington’s Saban Center for the Middle East, Panetta sent a clear message that Israel should not consider unilateral action against Iran. Panetta’s words echoed a similar message delivered during a recent visit to Israel, in which he stressed that any military operation against Iran by Israel must be coordinated with the US. “There is always a military option,” he said, “but it must be the last resort, not the first.”

An IAEA report published in November set out in detail the work Iran had done to prepare the technology and materials to build nuclear weapons. It also reported that Iran was already moving enrichment equipment to an underground facility in Qom, which was uncovered by Western intelligence agencies in 2009.