'Israel must have credible military option on Iran'

JPost -- Former IDF chief of staff Ashkenazi says "everything that can be done under the radar" must be done, alongside "painful, crippling sanctions."

Israel needs to prepare a credible and viable military option to use to eliminate Iran’s nuclear facilities, former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi said on Thursday as tensions continue to rise in the region over Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon.

“In comparison to ten years ago, the possibility of a conflict is not something that we just need to talk about. We also need to prepare for it,” Ashkenazi said at a conference in Tel Aviv.

Calling for a strategy that combines “everything that can be done under the radar” – likely a reference to covert action – with “painful and crippling sanctions”, Ashkenazi also said that Israel needed to create a military option and declare its readiness to use it.

Ashkenazi was chief of staff of the IDF from 2007 until 2011 and played a key role in preparing the military for a possible attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities. He commanded over the IDF during the strike against Syria’s nuclear reactor in 2007.

While sanctions are having an effect on Iran, Ashkenazi warned that time is running out since the Iranian’s nuclear program was moving forward at a rapid pace.

“Our mission now needs to be slow down the clock and to speed up the clock of sanctions and hope that it works,” Ashkenazi said.

Earlier Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the European Union rather than Iran will lose out under new sanctions banning Iranian oil.

"It is the West that needs Iran and the Iranian nation will not lose from the sanctions," Ahmadinejad said in his first public comments on the issue since the EU's 27 member states agreed the ban on Monday.

"There was a time when 90 percent of our trade was with the Europeans. It has now dropped to 10 percent. We didn't call for this. Cut it (trade) and let's see who will incur the loss," he said in excerpts of a speech broadcast on state radio.