Israeli President Peres to Meet Obama to End War Rumors

Contrary to the warmongering claims recently made by the Israeli and U.S. government officials, President Shimon Peres believes Israel should not attack Iran in near future, officials close to Peres said.

Peres is expected to meet U.S. President Barack Obama early next month and clear the general assumption that the Israeli government is pushing for military action against Iran, Haaretz newspaper reported, quoting officials familiar with Peres' position with regard to the simmering hostilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also scheduled to visit Washington D.C. next month, has been maintaining extreme opacity over the war plans with its most important strategic partner, the U.S.

Peres, who is planning to tell Obama that Israel isn't looking forward to strike Iran, termed the warmongering by Israeli spokesmen as unceasing self-intimidation.

A senior U.S. official, who wished to remain anonymous, had recently said that Israel was considering a military strike against Iran seriously, even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisers haven't decided whether to attack or not.

Peres will meet Obama on the sidelines of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington March 4.

According to U.S. intelligence officials, Iran is unlikely to terminate their clandestine nuclear weapons program and a U.S. and Israel attempt to terminate the program with military action could lead to disaster.

Already a target of a series of U.N. sanctions resolutions and numerous unilateral penalties from several nations over the undercover nuclear warheads program, Iran's relationship with Israel and its ally the U.S. has grown particularly hostile.

The Obama administration wants Israel to wait for a few more months since that would provide enough time to see if the international sanctions and penalties had the desired effect on Iran.

In a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the existing hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess said, Israel has not decided to attack Iran, to the best of our knowledge.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had recently said that it would probably take Iran about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then possibly another one or two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, while agreeing to Panetta's views, said that it's more likely that Iran would take longer to deliver a nuclear weapon ready to be put to use.