US 'Ready' to Strike Iran: Ambassador

The US has all the planning in place to launch a military strike on Iran should diplomacy fail to curb its nuclear ambitions, the US ambassador to Israel said today, just days before nuclear talks are set to resume. "It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically," Ambassador Dan Shapiro said on Israeli Army Radio, according to Reuters. "But that doesn't mean that option is not fully available—not just available, but it's ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it's ready."

The statement more or less mirrors Shapiro's January statement, made to an Israeli newspaper, that the US was "guaranteeing that the military option is ready and available to the president the moment he decides to use it." (More Israel stories.)