US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will begin a tour of the Middle East next week, taking in Israel, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt.
Coming hot on the heels of last week’s visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose tour of the region also centred on Cairo and Jerusalem, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed that Panetta will meet new Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to “encourage them to continue the political transition that’s taking place”.
His visit to Israel and Jordan comes in the wake of concerns over Syria and Iran’s weapons development and the ongoing violence in Syria, as Pentagon spokesman George Little stressed the aim of the visit was to “engage close allies and share our concerns”.
The announcement of Penetta’s visit was made the day after his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak warned off the increasingly possibility of Israel launching a pre-emptive strike on Iran, which it holds responsible for commissioning last week’s terrorist attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. Barak said the danger of striking the regime was less worrying than the alternative of Iran further developing nuclear capabilities, which he said “would be substantially more complex, more dangerous and more costly both to lives and resources”.
Hinting of US complicity in Israeli decision-making, he went on to say: “The United States understands that Israel, and only Israel, is responsible for its fate.”Netanyahu also sought to prepare for increasing Israel’s defence budget, warning that should Syrian weapons fall into the wrong hands “the situation requires changes to Israel’s power structure”.
Israel has warned the international community of its concerns over Syria providing chemical and biological weapons to Lebanese group Hezbollah, which it accuses of being Iran’s proxy in seeking to annihilate Israel. On a foreign visit to Brussels this week, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that should Israel prove its claims beyond doubt, “we will act decisively and without restraint”, adding that should they make a pre-emptive strike, “we hope for understanding from the international community and we hope for cooperation”.