US, Iranian and Western diplomats played down worries about a looming Israeli military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities today after reports of heightened tensions rattled nerves and helped drive oil prices near record highs.
"The military option is the last thing that we need to do and it will not be used easily," said a Western diplomat in Tel Aviv. "I don't think there will be an attack in the next six months."
Efforts to ease public fears of a possible confrontation between Israel and Iran followed more than a week of speculation touched off by a
New York Timesreport that US officials believed Israel had practiced for a possible military strike against the Islamic Republic.
Concern about a confrontation flared again today when
ABC Newsreported that an unnamed senior US defense official said there was an increasing likelihood that Israel would attack Iran over its nuclear programme, which could prompt Tehran to retaliate against both Israel and the United States.
The news jangled nerves and helped push oil prices up $2 a barrel, near the record $143.67 hit on Monday, on worries Tehran could move to halt shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. About 40 per cent of all seaborne oil trade passes through that Gulf choke point. Iran is the world's fourth biggest oil producer.
US officials sharply dismissed the
ABC Newsreport.
"I have no information that would substantiate that," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
"The official State Department reaction to that is one, laughter, and saying 'Coward, get out there and talk about in on the record if you've actually got something to say,'" he said, referring to the unnamed official cited in the report.
Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told
NBC Newshe did not believe Israel would attack Iran because it lacked the capability following what he termed its defeat by Hezbollah in 2006.
But Mr Mottaki said Iran would make no distinction between an attack by Israel or the United States and would deliver a widespread response if attacked, NBC News reported.
The Western diplomat in Israel said there was no consensus in Israel in favor of an attack and the United States was unlikely to act because it estimated Iran's nuclear program would not reach a point of no return for about two years.
The United States and other Western powers charge Tehran with seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy production.
Israel is widely assumed to be the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, although it has never said it has an atomic arsenal.
Despite efforts to allay public fears of a looming clash, the United States kept up its pressure on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
US envoy Garold Larson, marking the 40th anniversary of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in Geneva, said the United States "remained very concerned that parties like Iran have violated their commitments and thereby undermined the treaty."
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in Germany on a European trip, said he was talking to European leaders about coordinating efforts "to make sure the financial system isn't perverted or abused by those who would attempt to use it to acquire weapons, to further their nuclear objectives or to finance terrorists."