US uncertain Israel would advise before Iran strike

The top US military officer said Wednesday he did not know whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it decided to take military action against Iran. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also acknowledged differences in perspective between the United States and Israel over the best way to handle Iran and its nuclear program. He said the US was convinced that sanctions and diplomatic pressure was the right path to take on Iran, along with "the stated intent not to take any options off the table" -- language that leaves open the possibility of future military action. "I'm not sure the Israelis share our assessment of that. And because they don't and because to them this is an existential threat, I think probably that it's fair to say that our expectations are different right now," Dempsey said in an interview as he flew to Washington from London. Asked whether he was talking about the differences between Israeli and US expectations over sanctions, or differences in perspective about the future course of events, Dempsey said: "All of the above." He did not elaborate. He also did not disclose whether he believed Israel was prepared to strike Iran.