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How much can U.S. influence Israel on Iran?

There is new drama this morning over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran is ready to retaliate against any action taken to halt that program – this after Israeli leaders issued unusually blunt warnings about possibly striking Iranian nuclear sites. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reportedly believes that could happen within the next few months.

Bob Schieffer says Washington wants to do everything it can to keep Iran off-balance. “We also want them to know that we know a lot about what they are doing,” he said on “CBS This Morning.”

But how much consultation might take place if Israel made a decision to attack?

The White House, says John Miller, doesn’t know the answer to that.

“The questions from the National Security Council on out are, do we get a day’s notice? Do we get a week’s notice? Or do we get two hours’ notice?” Miller said. “I think the latter scenario, a couple of hours, is the most likely, because Israel is not going to want to put itself in the position of having the U.S. have a lot of time to weigh in and gather any pressure once they know. So I think it will be pretty fast.”