Former Obama Adviser Ross: US Will Attack Iran If Nuclear Program Isn't Peacefully Stopped

If Iran doesn’t abandon its nuclear weapons program through negotiations, the United States will respond militarily, says Dennis Ross, a former Mideast adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama.

At a symposium in Jerusalem Wednesday, Ross said that Obama should be taken at his word on this issue, Israel Hayom newspaper reports.

When the president announced that he was willing to use military force against Iran if necessary, that was meant to put pressure on Iran to change its behavior and drop its effort to acquire nuclear arms, Ross said.

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The United States always had to be prepared for the possibility that diplomacy fails, Ross said. "If we do everything we can but it doesn't succeed, are we prepared to live with an Iran that has a capability and then contain it afterwards, or do we believe that the acquisition of that capability is so profoundly threatening to our interests that we really can't live with it and we have to prevent it?"

Prevention was the answer. “It is very important that having stated prevention as an objective that we act on it," Ross said. "When President Obama says 'I don't bluff', I think he means what he says. If diplomacy doesn't work, we have to be prepared to use force, and I think we will be."

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that U.S.-led efforts to end Iran's nuclear weapons quest have resumed since Obama's re-election and include preparation for possible military action, Reuters reports.