Though the US military will respond to the Iranian nuclear issue if asked, diplomatic resolution remains the preferable option, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday. “Obviously, without straying into classified matters, we do have the capability, were we asked to use it, to address a Iranian nuclear capability,” Army General Martin Dempsey said, according to the website of the US Department of Defense. There is a “challenge,” however, Dempsey said: using the military instrument of power simply would delay Iran’s nuclear ambition, as opposed to eliminating it. “What really makes the nuclear capability of Iran an issue is not centrifuges and ballistic missiles, but rather the human capital that has the expertise to regenerate it,” the general explained. “Ultimately, the Iranian government itself would have to take a decision to move away from that aspiration entirely, and that’s why the diplomatic track is actually the right track.”
