Obama and Israel ‘in unison’ on Iran

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the United States will work with Israel to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, signalling that a diplomatic resolution to the current crisis is still possible.In an interview with the NBC television from the White House, Obama said both the United States and Israel, which is “rightly” concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, believe that “Iran has to stand down” on the current standoff.When asked if Israel is determined to attack Iran, Obama said he didn’t think that Israel has made such a decision, adding that the United States and Israel will work “in lockstep” on dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue. “I will say that we have closer military and intelligence consultation between our two countries than we’ve ever had,” he said.The president emphasized his goal in resolving the nuclear standoff diplomatically, though repeating that he was not taking any options off the table.“We’re going to do everything we can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and creating an arms race -- a nuclear arms race -- in a volatile region,” Obama said.When asked about the possibility of Iran launching a retaliatory attack on the U.S. soil, Obama said he didn’t see “any evidence that they have those intentions or capabilities right now.”Obama made the remarks after media reports revealed Thursday Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s suspicion on Israel’s attack toward Iran this spring.Panetta believed there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June before Iran enters a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb, according to an article written by the Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.The article said Obama and Panetta had cautioned the Israelis that Washington opposes an attack, citing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold.