(Haaretz).United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that Iran must expect full retaliation from a "a battery of nuclear weapons countries" should it ever attack Israel.
When asked during an interview with ABC News whether America had set as policy envoy Dennis Ross' statement that an attack on Israel would be seen as an attack on the U.S. itself, Clinton said:
"I don't think there is any doubt in anyone's mind that were Israel to suffer a nuclear attack by Iran, there would be retaliation."
"I think part of what is clear is we want to avoid a Middle East arms race which leads to nuclear weapons being in the possession of other countries in the Middle East, and we want to make clear that there are consequences and costs," Clinton told interviewer George Stephanpoulos, though she would not elaborate on whether the U.S. would be part of said retaliation.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that a new report on Iran by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog shows that the global body cannot be trusted to monitor the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
"These findings demonstrate that the international community, no more than Israel, cannot place its trust in IAEA monitoring in Iran," the ministry said in a statement.
