Leading U.S. strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski rejects Israeli pressure to form American national security policy by beating the drum for war on Iran. Washington would not blindly follow Tel-Aviv if Israel chooses to unilaterally strike Iran, he said.

Brzezinski said he would not advise President Barack Obama to back military action against Iran if Israel initiates a war. The observation was made at a conference hosted by the National Iranian American Council and the Arms Control Association.

In the event that Israel attacks Iran before Iran crosses the U.S. red line, Zbigniew Brzezinski does not think there is any “implicit obligation” for the U.S. “to follow, like a stupid mule, whatever the Israelis do.”

“If they decide to start a war, simply on the assumption that we will be automatically drawn into it, I think it is the obligation of friendship to say “you’re not going to be making national decisions for us”, declared Brzezinski.

“I think the U.S. has the right to have its own national security policy. I think most Americans would agree with that. And therefore clarity on this issue is important and especially if we commit ourselves, explicitly and bindingly, to Israel’s security,” the strategist said.

Brzezinski explained that he advocates a formula “designed to freeze any threat into a non-threat.”

“Unless one can convincingly argue that a country of eighty five million people is no higher priority than an act of collective suicide. And I don’t think that is sustained by any evidence whatsoever,” Brzezinski rationalized.­

In recent months the Obama administration has been rebutting all of Israel’s attempts to draw the U.S. into a military operation against Iran. Washington has warned not once that in case Tel Aviv opts to do the assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own, it would have to face the consequences along.

President Barack Obama stated he lays his hopes with the crippling international sanctions imposed on the Iranian Islamic Republic.

Despite Washington’s decisiveness on the Iranian question, the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu continues to call for military action against Tehran.         — RT