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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cautious_Optimist who wrote (164881)	4/2/2009 2:40:41 PM
From: SiouxPal	Respond to of 361515

Israel expected to hold back on Iran as diplomacy runs its course By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Published: April 2 2009 03:00 \| Last updated: April 2 2009 03:00 Robert Gates would be "surprised" if Israel attacked Iran this year to prevent it developing a nuclear weapon. The US defence secretary told the Financial Times that Washington and Israel had enough time to persuade Tehran to abandon what is widely perceived as a weapons programme. Asked if Iran would cross a nuclear red line this year, he said: "I don't know, I would guess probably not. I think we have more time than that. How much more time I don't know. It is a year, two years, three years. It is somewhere in that window." Mr Gates does not expect Israel - which believes the US is too sanguine in its estimate of when Iran could develop a nuclear weapon - to take military action this year. "I guess I would say I would be surprised . . . if they did act this year." Israel last year raised the spectre of war by conducting a large military exercise that some experts saw as a practice run for an attack on Iran. That prompted Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs, to make an unusual public warning following a visit to Israel that "this is a very unstable part of the world and I don't need it to be more unstable". Sitting in his Pentagon office just days before President Barack Obama is to meet Nato leaders in Strasbourg, Mr Gates urged Europe to boost its commitment to Afghanistan in the wake of the new US strategy to stamp out the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Mr Gates, who has made multiple frustrating trips to Europe as defence secretary to get more combat troops, said the US was looking for resources that would be more politically palatable with the European public. He urged Europe to provide money for expansion of the Afghan army, civilian experts in areas such as agriculture, health and clean water, and trainers for the Afghan police. "The guardia civil, the gendarmerie, the carabinieri, all of these kinds of police forces in Europe have the kind of skill sets that the Afghan national police want and need. It may be easier for the Europeans to provide police trainers than military trainers," said Mr Gates. He also called for contributions to a $500m (€378m, £347m) "starter fund" to help increase the Afghan army from 80,000 to 134,000 soldiers. The US expects an expanded army will ultimately cost about $2bn-$3bn a year to maintain. Washington last year asked Tokyo to provide $20bn to fund the expansion, but Japan opted to pay for police training. While some US military experts and officers have questioned whether Nato's contribution is worthwhile given the cost that comes with co-ordinating different militaries, including several that impose caveats on what their soldiers can do on the ground, Mr Gates said Europe had made a valuable contribution to the Afghanistan campaign. He agreed with criticisms that some allies were not letting the Afghan security forces take the lead in operations - which is considered crucial for training - but he said the US also needed to do better. "We have tried to do a lot in terms of partnering with the Afghans and putting the Afghans out front but . . . we need to do more of that and particularly as they increase their numbers." Some US officials have argued for a doubling of the Afghan army and police to about 400,000. Mr Gates said he could not say if the Afghan army would have to grow to 400,000-500,000 soldiers, as the US counter-insurgency doctrine crafted by General David Petraeus would suggest. "I don't know the answer to that," said Mr Gates. "I don't think Afghanistan can sustain an army that size and I don't think the international community is prepared to pay to sustain an army that size." ft.com