(Newser)
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Iran and Israel are rattling the sabers in earnest today, with the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard brashly warning that "nothing will remain" of Israel if it should attack Tehran over its nuclear program. Speaking at a news conference today, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said that, if attacked, Iran would abandon the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—which currently affords UN inspectors access to its nuclear facilities—and doubled down on his nation's threat to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, reports the AP.
Israeli PM Benjamin Natanyahu, meanwhile, took to the US airwaves in his quest to draw "red lines" for Iran, reports Haaretz. Speaking on Meet the Press this morning, Netanyahu called sentiment in Iran “the same fanaticism that you see storming your embassies today. Do you want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?” Separately, US defense chief Leon Panetta seemed to reject Netanyahu's push, telling Foreign Policy in an interview out yesterday that, "Leaders of these countries don't have, you know, a bunch of little red lines that determine their decisions."
