US defense chief vows new sanctions if Iran balks
After his visit in Israel, US Defense Secretary flies to Amman, where he gives stern warning that if Iran spurns offer of talks over nuclear program with US, tougher sanctions will be sought
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates saind on Monday that the United States will seek much tougher United Nations sanctions on Iran if that nation spurns the offer of talks on its disputed nuclear program.
Gates says President Barack Obama hopes Iran will come to the table. The United States and several nations want Iran to come clean about what the West suspects is a bomb-making program, and have offered economic and political incentives to get talks started.
Obama has set a rough deadline of this fall for an answer. Gates says the next step would be harsher and might include a number of punitive measures simultaneously. That would be a departure from the current international policy of gradual sanctions with punishments getting tougher each time Iran falls short.
Earlier Monday, Gates met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who's office said in a statement after the meeting that he reaffirmed in his talks with Gates "the need to use all means to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear military capability".
"Gates said the United States and Israel see eye-to-eye with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat," the statement said.
During his visit to Israel, Gates affirmed Obama's hope for an Iranian response to the US overtures in time for the UN General Assembly in late September. Obama has also warned Tehran that the United States would not abide endless talks, saying he would like to see progress by year's end.
"I think, based on the information that's available to us, that the timetable that the president has laid out still seems to be viable and does not significantly increase the risks to anybody," Gates told reporters at a news conference with his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak.
Netanyahu's office said Gates explained to the Israeli leader, whom he met after his talks with Barak, that the US policy of engagement with Iran was "limited in time".
After traveling to Jordan and meeting King Abdullah, Gates said he had every sense that Israel would go along with the US strategy, "as long as the process is not completely open-ended".
Reuters contributed to this report
