Tehran, February 06: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to pay an official visit to the United States in early March where he will likely hold talks with US government officials on Iran.
The upcoming visit was announced by Netanyahu’s office on Sunday.
The prime minister is set to address the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby group, which is to commence in Washington on March 3.
Israel’s President Shimon Peres will also attend the conference, according to AIPAC’s website.
The announcement comes a few days after Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon threatened Iran with a military strike against the country’s nuclear facilities as an attempt to force Tehran to abandon its peaceful nuclear energy program.
Speaking on Thursday, the minister claimed that Iran’s nuclear facilities were ‘within striking distance’ and added that “any facility defended by a human being can be penetrated.”
Also on Thursday, an article run by The Washington Post quoted US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as saying that “there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June” and that the Obama administration was “conducting intense discussions about what an Israeli attack would mean for the United States.”
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg expressed concern on February 2 that the US and Israel would “take matters into their own hands and launch a military strike against Iran.”
The US, Israel, and their European allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program and have convinced the UN Security Council to impose four rounds of sanctions on the country.
Washington and Tel Aviv have also repeatedly threatened Tehran with the ‘option’ of a military strike based on the allegation.
Iran has refuted the allegations over its nuclear program, arguing that, as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has the right to acquire and develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Iranian officials have also promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.
——-Agencies