Interview part of PM’s campaign to garner American public support for his position on Iran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin a campaign to win American public support to draw “red lines” for Iran, in regards to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear aspirations. As part of his campaign, Netanyahu recorded interviews for American media programs on CNN and NBC.

During his interviews, Netanyahu will attempt to convince the American public that drawing red lines for Iran will not only discourage the nation from obtaining nuclear weapons, but also reduce the chances of a broader armed conflict.

Netanyahu is expected to mention recent attacks against American embassies in the Middle East. In a preview clip of the interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Netanyahu said, speaking on what he called Iranian fanaticism, “it’s the same fanaticism that you see storming your embassies today. Do you want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?”

Aides close to Netanyahu said on Saturday that the Prime Minister intends to stress that the is convinced that discussions of red lines will forge clear boundaries for Iran, and make it that much more difficult for the Islamic Republic to obtain nuclear weapons.

Also on Saturday, Foreign Policy published an interview with United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who also discussed the ongoing debate between the U.S. and Israel regarding the setting of "red lines" for Iran.

He said that "Leaders of these countries don´t have, you know, a bunch of little red lines that determine their decisions," he said. "Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.” (© Copyright 2012 Ha´aretz 09/16/12)