Biden warns Israel against Iran strike

US vice president tells CNN he thinks Netanyahu would be "ill-advised" to attack Iranian nuclear sites.

biden and obama 248.88 (photo credit: )
biden and obama 248.88
(photo credit: )
While stressing that it was an unlikely event, US Vice President Joe Biden issued a high-level admonishment to the new government, saying on Tuesday night that Israel would be "ill-advised" to carry out a military strike against Iran. "I don't believe that Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu would do that. I think he would be ill-advised to do that," Biden said in an interview with CNN, when asked about a possible Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites. "My level of concern is no different than it was a year ago," Biden concluded. While US president Barack Obama has stressed time and again that he is committed to hold diplomatic talks with Teheran, Netanyahu has been very clear that the Iranian nuclear issue is high on Israel's agenda, and should be a top priority for the US as well. In an interview to The Atlantic magazine on March 31, the prime minister noted that "the Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons." Netanyahu went on to say that the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a "hinge of history" and added that "Western civilization" would have failed if Iran was allowed to develop nuclear weapons. "You don't want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran," Netanyahu was quoted as saying of the Iranian leadership.