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U.S. Flying Targeting Missions in Iran, Sources Say
U.S. combat aircraft have been flying into Iranian airspace for weeks in an attempt to develop targets for a potential strike, including suspected nuclear weapons sites, UPI reported last week (see GSN, Jan. 28). “We have to know which targets to attack and how to attack them,” a Bush administration official told UPI. U.S. officials hope the flights would cause Iran to activate air-defense radars, which would help develop targeting information. “These Iranian air-defense positions are not just being observed, they’re being ‘templated,’” as part of a U.S. effort to develop “an electronic order of battle for Iran” in case of conflict, an official added. A Defense Department spokesman, however, said he was unaware of any such maneuvers. “We are not aware of any incursions into Iranian airspace,” said Cmdr. Nick Balice, chief of media at U.S. Central Command. Such flights would not be unusual, said Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Henry L. Stimson Center and former CIA Middle East expert. “It’s not unusual for countries to test each other’s air defenses from time to time, to do a little probing — but it can be dangerous if the target country believes that such flights could mean an imminent attack,” she said. Meanwhile, the United States is working with Israeli-trained Kurds in northern Iraq and U.S.-trained Iranian exiles in the south to collect intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program on the ground, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials. “This looks to be turning into a pretty large-scale covert operation,” a former longtime CIA operator in the region told UPI. “The administration has determined that there is no diplomatic solution,” said John Pike, president of the Globalsecurity.org online think tank. “Like the Israelis, the Bush administration has decided that forces of sweetness and light won’t be running Iran any time soon, and that having atomic ayatollahs is simply not acceptable,” Pike added. “It’s very, very dangerous,” former CIA counterterrorism chief Vince Cannistraro said of the U.S. policy (Richard Sale, United Press International/SpaceWar.com, Jan. 26). The United States has rejected offers to join the European Union’s diplomatic effort to persuade Iran to renounce any nuclear work that could have military applications, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats told Reuters. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer visited Washington separately last week to discuss European efforts. “Straw came over hoping [Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] would change our policy and she didn’t,” a senior Bush administration official said. The idea of the United States joining the negotiations “is in the air,” a senior State Department official said. “But we have not been (formally) asked yet and when we are, we will say, ‘What good would it do?’” (Saul Hudson, Reuters, Jan. 30). U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Friday cautioned against U.S. military involvement in Iran, the Financial Times reported. “I do not think it would be successful. There is no guarantee we would get all these facilities,” he said. “If you have a strike and leave them with nuclear capability, you have got a hell of a challenge on your hands” (Gowers/Guha/Sevastopulo, Financial Times, Jan. 29). U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi clashed Friday over Iran’s nuclear program during a dinner at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Associated Press reported. “You have to grow up and my administration has to grow up, with all due respect, and find out if there is any common ground,” Biden said. “We are on the course of unintended consequences.” “I hope we’re all smarter about this, smarter than we’ve been,” he said. Biden spoke after Kharazi said Iran continues to insist on its right to enrich uranium. “Iran cannot be ignored,” Kharazi said. “Iran’s rights cannot be denied.” Biden said he would back a U.S. pledge “that we are not interested in regime change” in exchange for Iran putting to rest suspicions about its nuclear efforts. Biden added that liberal and conservative U.S. lawmakers agree “that it is not in our interest ... for [Iran] to acquire nuclear capability for nuclear weapons and intermediate or long range missile technology” (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 28). Meanwhile, Pakistan has been pressuring Iran to come to a settlement with Europe and the United States, Pakistani diplomatic sources told Agence France-Presse. “We feel the role the [European powers] are playing is positive, because we feel that a peaceful resolution to this dispute is highly desirable,” said Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, who met with Kharazi over the weekend. “Being their neighbors, and already with the Iraq situation being what it is, we wouldn’t want another turmoil on our border,” he said. “We paid a big price” in Afghanistan, he added. “We don’t want a similar destabilization on our border again, so we have a vested interest in a peaceful resolution of this dispute.” Pakistani officials said they have warned Iran “bluntly, bordering on rudeness,” about their concerns over Tehran’s nuclear program. “We have not minced our words,” a diplomatic source said (Kevin McElderry, Agence France-Presse/Dawn, Jan. 30). Elsewhere, the manager of a Namibian uranium mine said Iran owns a 15-percent stake in the facility, Reuters reported Saturday. “The government of Iran has held a 15-percent shareholding in Rossing Uranium Limited since 1975,” Graham Davidson, general manager for operations, said in a letter to Reuters. Rossing sells uranium to nuclear power plants in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Sweden (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Jan. 29).
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