TEL AVIV, Israel — U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Sunday he has no expectation of persuading Israeli leaders to drop their opposition to the Iran nuclear deal but will instead emphasize that the accord imposes no limits on what Washington can do to ensure the security of Israel and U.S. Arab allies.
“Our ability to carry out that strategy is unchanged,” Carter told reporters aboard his plane en route to Tel Aviv.
The Obama administration reserves the right to use military force against Iran if necessary, he added, although the nuclear deal is intended to preclude that by resolving the issue diplomatically.
Carter is scheduled to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Monday and with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday before traveling to Saudi Arabia and Jordan to consult on the implications of the Iran deal and to assess progress in the campaign against the Islamic State. One of the bases used for U.S.-led training and arming of moderate Syrian rebels is in Jordan, and the Jordanian air force has carried out strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria.
Netanyahu has criticized the Iran nuclear deal harshly, asserting that it clears the way for Iran to build nuclear weapons that would threaten Israel’s existence and ultimately diminish U.S. and global security.
“I’m not going to change anybody’s mind in Israel,” Carter said in the interview. “We can agree to disagree.”
In his remarks, Carter repeatedly mentioned that the Iran deal places no limitations on the U.S. defense strategy or its military presence in the Middle East, which includes warplanes, an aircraft carrier and tens of thousands of troops. He gave no indication, however, that the Pentagon plans immediate moves to bolster that presence, which is anchored by the Navy’s 5th fleet headquarters in Bahrain, an air operations center in Qatar and a military headquarters in Kuwait running the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The U.S.-Israel defense relationship has deepened in recent years, even as tensions over how to contain Iran’s nuclear program has grown.
The U.S. has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in an Israeli air defense system designed to shoot down short-range rockets, mortars and artillery shells fired into northern Israel from southern Lebanon and into Israel’s south from the Gaza Strip.
