US denies giving Israel 'green light' to attack Iran

US President Barack Obama's administration denied Monday that it is giving Israel the green light to attack Iran or that it is reconsidering plans to engage diplomatically with the Islamic Republic.

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani, formerly the country's top nuclear negotiator, warned Tehran would hold Washington responsible for any such strike after Vice President Joe Biden said Washington would not dictate how Israel deals with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But State Department spokesman Ian Kelly poured cold water on suggestions that Biden could be seen as giving the Jewish state a green light to attack Iran, which it views as an existential threat.

"I certainly would not want to give a green light to any kind of military action," Kelly told reporters.

But he echoed Biden's point that Washington considered Israel a "sovereign country" with a right to make its own military decisions.

"We're not going to dictate its actions," Kelly added. "We're also committed to Israel's security. And we share Israel's deep concerns about Iran's nuclear program."

He also refuted any idea that Biden was signaling a move by the Obama administration to drop its policy of diplomatic engagement with Iran.

"I wouldn't read into it any more than what you see," Kelly said.

In an interview with ABC television broadcast Sunday, Biden said: "Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.

"We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened," he added.

But Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned in a separate interview Sunday of the dangers posed by any military strike against Iran, despite saying military options should not be ruled out.

Obama has said he wants to see progress on his diplomatic outreach to Iran by year's end, while not excluding a "range of steps," including tougher sanctions, if Tehran continued its nuclear drive.

Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a possible military strike against Iran.

Larijani warned that Iran "will consider the Americans responsible in any adventure launched by" Israel, a country he said that nobody can imagine acting "without getting the green light" from Washington.

Speaking on a visit to Qatar, Larijani warned that Iran's response to an attack would be "decisive and painful."

Biden's comments, said Trita Parsi, who heads the National Iranian American Council, were "not helpful to those who are trying to find peaceful change in Iran."

But Parsi said it would be wrong to interpret them as heralding a policy shift, even if the administration's plans for engagement now face a "rough ride."

Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department specialist on Iran, said Biden's remarks are not new and did not signal a policy shift, even if the Iranians read more into them.

"Particularly for this administration, an Israeli strike on Iran would have devastating consequences for all its foreign policy initiatives," she said, citing its efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace and stabilize Iraq and Lebanon.

But she feared the Obama administration may find the Iranians are not in the right "mindset" to engage in talks if they get "so caught up in this narrative of an externally-sponsored velvet revolution."