United States Secretary of Defense Leon Pan-etta visited Israel on 3 October to head off any possibility of unilateral military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. Panetta's first visit to Israel since his appointment in July also included talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Panetta's counterpart, Ehud Barak, on steps to resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Israel should be working in cooperation with the international efforts already under way to stall Iran's pursuit of a nuclear programme that the Islamic Republic maintains is civilian only, despite mounting evidence of a military component, Panetta said. "The best approach for dealing with this threat is for all of us to make it clear to them that they cannot proceed on the path that they are on," Panetta said. "We will work together to do whatever is neces- sary to make sure that they do not represent a threat to this region and it depends on countries working together."
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