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EFTA02406470 | EFTA02406471 (Overview) Ar=icle 1. The Atlantic=/p> Obama to Iran=and Israel: 'As President of the United States, I Don't Bluff'<=b> Jeffrey Goldberg </=pan> Mar 2 2012 -- At the White House on Monday, President Obama wil= seek to persuade the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to postp=ne whatever plans he may have to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities in the coming months. Obama will argue that unde= his leadership, the United States "has Israel's back," and that=he will order the U.S. military to destroy Iran's nuclear program if econo=ic sanctions fail to compel Tehran to shelve its nuclear ambitions. In the most extensive interview he has given about the looming Iran crisis,=Obama told me earlier this week that both Iran and Israel should take seri=usly the possibility of American action against Iran's nuclear facilities.="I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff." H= went on, "I also don't, as a matter of sound policy, go around adver=ising exactly what our intentions are. But I think both the Iranian and th= Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapo=, we mean what we say." The 45-minute Oval Office convers=tion took place less than a week before the president was scheduled to add=ess the annual convention of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, and then meet, the next day, with Prime Minister Netanyahu=at the White House. In the interview, Obama stated specifically that "=all options are on the table," and that the final option is the "=military component." But the president also said that sanctions organized by his administration have put Iran in a "wo=ld of hurt," and that economic duress might soon force the regime in =ehran to rethink its efforts to pursue a nuclear-weapons program. &q=ot;Without in any way being under an illusion about Iranian intentions, without in any way being naive about the nature of tha= regime, they are self-interested," Obama said. "It is possible =or them to make a strategic calculation that, at minimum, pushes much furt=er to the right whatever potential breakout capacity they may have, and that may turn out to to be the best decision f=r Israel's security." The president also said that Tehran=s nuclear program would represent a "profound" nationalsecurity=threat to the United States even if Israel were not a target of Iran's violent rhetoric, and he dismissed the argument that the United =tates could successfully contain a nuclear Iran. "You're talkin= about the most volatile region in the world," he said. "It will=not be tolerable to a number of states in that region for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and them not to have a nuclear weapon. l=an is known to sponsor terrorist organizations, so the threat of prolifera=ion becomes that much more severe." He went on to say, "The dang=rs of an Iran getting nuclear weapons that then leads to a free-for-all in the Middle East is something that I think =ould be very dangerous for the world." The president was =ost animated when talking about the chaotic arms race he fears would break=out if Iran acquired a nuclear weapon, and he seemed most frustrated when talking about what he sees as a deliberate cam=aign by Republicans to convince American Jews that he is anti-Israel. &quo=;Every single commitment I have made to the state of Israel and its securi=y, I have kept," he told me. "Why is it that despite me never failing to support Israel on every single problem=that they've had over the last three years, that there are still questions=about that?" Though he struck a consistently pro-Israel p=sture during the interview, Obama went to great lengths to caution Israel that a premature strike might inadvertently help=Iran: "At a time when there is not a lot of sympathy for Iran and its=only real ally, (Syria,) is on the ropes, do we 2 EFTA_R1_01448620 EFTA02406471 Epstein Web iOS app on the App Store.
April 8, 2026 at 9:34 AM