Panetta won’t confirm whether he thinks Israel will attack Iran this spring

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is keeping mum regarding a report that he thinks there is an increasing likelihood that Israel will attack Iran.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Panetta thinks “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.”

{mosads}Panetta stayed quiet when asked about the story, but did say, according to Agence France Presse, that the United States had “indicated our concerns.”

“I’m just not commenting,” Panetta said while on visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, according to The Associated Press. “What I think, and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else.”

The report comes a few months after the Justice Department charged two men with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps with an attempted bomb plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

At the time, House Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said that the plot “underscores the need for concerted international unity to confront Iran.”

In January, lawmakers indicated to The Hill they were wary of a U.S. military conflict with Iran as tensions escalated.

— This story was updated at 8:23 a.m.