US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a "strong possibility" that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear installations this spring, the Washington Post said Thursday in an editorial.

When asked about the opinion piece by reporters travelling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, Panetta brushed it aside.

"I'm not going to comment on that. David Ignatius can write what he will but with regards with what I think and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else," he said.

"Israel indicated they're considering this (a strike), we've indicated our concerns," he added.

The Post columnist said Panetta "believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb."

President Barack Obama and Panetta are "said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold," he said.

"But the White House hasnt yet decided precisely how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack."

Panetta said Sunday in an interview with CBS that Iran needed "about a year" to produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, and one or two more years to "put it on a deliverable vehicle."

Iran insists its nuclear project is peaceful and has threatened retaliation over the fresh sanctions, including possibly disrupting shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli media reported in October last year that the option of pre-emptive air strikes on Iran was opposed by the country's intelligence services but favored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

Israeli television said Mossad chief Tamir Pardo raised the possibility of a unilateral strike on Iran during a visit last week to Washington.

US Senate panel adopts new Iran sanctions
Washington (AFP) Feb 2, 2012 - A key US Senate panel adopted a sweeping package of tough new sanctions Thursday aimed at forcing Iran to freeze its suspect nuclear program amid escalating worries of a military confrontation.

The Senate Banking Committee approved the harsh new measures by voice vote, without dissent, as part of a mounting campaign in the US Congress to tighten the economic screws on the defiant Islamic republic.

The legislation targets Iran's national oil and tanker firms, its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and would for the first time widen sanctions on Iran's energy sector to any joint venture anywhere in the world where Iran's government is a substantial partner or investor.

"We are giving Iran's leaders a clear choice," said Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, the committee's chairman, who co-authored the core of the legislation with the panel's top Republican, Richard Shelby.

"Iran can end its suppression of its own people, come clean on its nuclear program, suspend enrichment, and stop supporting terrorist activities around the globe. Or it can continue to face sustained, intensifying multilateral economic and diplomatic pressure deepening its international isolation," Johnson said.

Shelby said he is "hopeful that the full Senate will consider and pass it soon."

The White House, which says President Barack Obama's diplomacy has framed the most punishing range of sanctions ever faced by Iran, did not give an immediate reaction to the bill.

"We're reviewing the legislation and will make our views known at an appropriate time," a White House official said.

"We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to identify ways to increase pressure on the Iranian regime."

Iran denies Western charges that it seeks the ability to build a nuclear weapon, insisting its atomic activities are an effort to develop a civilian power-production capability.

The legislation does not specify the names of companies that would be affected -- and leaves it to the executive branch to make that determination in many cases.

But some activist groups, like United Against A Nuclear Iran (UNANI) have urged pressure on a wide range of firms, from Germany's Siemens engineering giant to France's Renault, to stop doing business in Iran.

The bill calls for a US travel ban and freezing of US assets aimed at individuals and firms that provide Tehran with technology -- everything from rubber bullets to surveillance equipment -- used to repress dissent.

It also would tighten sanctions aimed at the IRGC, including bans on travel to the United States, a freezing of US assets, and targeting "anyone who materially assists" the IRGC with other punitive measures.

It would require firms competing for US government contracts to certify that they and their subsidiaries have not had "significant economic transactions" with the IRGC or individuals or entities connected to it.

It calls for imposing sanctions on firms that invest in projects involving Iranian officials, companies or go-betweens in the mining, production or transportation of uranium anywhere in the world.