U.S. senators say strike on Iran is option

Three U.S. senators said a military strike on Iran is possible to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Republican presidential candidate in 2008; Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.); and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) spoke in Jerusalem on Wednesday after a meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

“We will use every means that we have to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power, through economic and diplomatic sanctions if we possibly can and through military action if we must,” Lieberman said. 

The senators said there is a broad consensus in the U.S. Congress that military force can be used if other methods fail, a ratcheting-up of the rhetoric employed by U.S. officials; usually such statements imply military force by invoking “all options on the table,” but do not specify it.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Washington endorsed an American strike on Iran, according to a blog on The Atlantic.

Jeffrey Goldberg on Tuesday quoted Yousef al-Otaiba as saying that he “absolutely” wants the United States to stop the Iranian nuclear program by force.

“I think we are at risk of an Iranian nuclear program far more than you [the U.S.] are at risk,” he said. “At 7,000 miles away, and with two oceans bordering you, an Iranian nuclear threat does not threaten the continental United States.”

Otaiba added, “I think out of every country in the region, the UAE is most vulnerable to Iran.”