The shift of the United States towards Iran is a “big mistake,” said Amos Yadlin, the top candidate for Minister of Defense if the Zionist Union forms the next Israeli government, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday. Yadlin, who currently heads Israel’s Institute of National Security Studies (INSS), also described an American or Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities as “doable.” Yadlin previously served as head of Israel’s military intelligence and was one of the pilots involved in the raid on Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981.

“If there is one subject that I am not discussing in the open, in TV studios, it is the details of an Israeli or an American military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. I do say 3 words: It is doable,” he said.

Yadlin noted concern in Israel and some quarters in the US over the Obama administration’s apparent decision to “shift alliances,” moving away from traditional alliances with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey, and toward Iran as a source of Middle East stability.

He described such a shift as “a big mistake. Iran is a source of instability, terror, regime change, and Islamic revolution all over the Middle East. We have to cope with Iran on both channels [its nuclear program and its regional proxy terrorism networks].”

In the course of the interview Yadlin stressed that countering Iran required bipartisan support in Congress, saying “[t]he policy that I recommend is to speak to the US administration and to the US Congress, to Republicans and Democrats, to make sure the deal will be acceptable and not a bad deal.” He expressed concern “that the administration will reach bad deal, and will define it as acceptable.”

[Photo: Jposttv / YouTube ]