White House Denies Plans for Military Strikes on Iran

The White House said yesterday that President George W. Bush hopes to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran peacefully, following a report this week that preparations are under way for possible military strikes against the Middle Eastern nation, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Oct. 1).

“The president has said that he believes there is a diplomatic solution that we can use to solve the Iranian problem.  And that's why we're working with our allies to get there,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

This week’s issue of the New Yorker reported that the White House has requested revisions of U.S. plans for strikes on Iran.  Citing anonymous sources, the magazine said Bush said he was considering targeted attacks on Iranian locations and that he had the United Kingdom’s support (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Oct. 1).

While the article said that “the bombing plan has had its most positive reception from … [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown,” the London Independent reported that several officials with close U.S. military connections contested the claim.

“It is quite the opposite,” said former CIA counterterrorism officer Phillip Giraldi.  “In fact [U.S. Defense Secretary] Robert Gates was rebuffed during his recent visit to London when the idea was floated.

“Because British minesweepers based in the Gulf of Hormuz will be essential to any U.S. action against Iran, U.S. war planners need to have Britain on board.  So far that is not forthcoming,” he added.

“The British perception is that the Iranians are not making the progress they want to see in their nuclear enrichment processing,” one senior EU official said, suggesting that the United Kingdom believes that time remains to deal with Iran.

The New Yorker reported that the Bush administration has determined Tehran to be a major source of current problems in Iraq, however, and that war planners have opted for limited air strikes to defend U.S. troops in Iraq instead of a possibly unpopular large-scale attack on the Iran’s nuclear facilities (Leonard Doyle, London Independent, Oct. 2).

White House spokeswoman Perino did not comment on the New Yorker report except to criticize its use of anonymous sources and to express frustration that other news organizations were reporting what the article said, AFP reported.

“We don't discuss such things.  What we have said and what we are working toward is a diplomatic solution in Iran,” she said (Agence France-Presse).

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni yesterday called for immediate U.N. action against Iran in response to its disputed nuclear activities, the Associated Press reported.

Livni criticized countries that have opposed action against Iran “in the name of consensus and engagement.”  He was apparently referring to China and Russia, which have opposed instituting a third round of sanctions against Tehran.

“What is the value, we have to ask, of an organization which is unable to take effective action in the face of a direct assault on the very principles it was founded to effect?”  Livni said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.  “It is time for the United Nations, and the states of the world, to live up to their promise of ‘never again.’”

An Iranian delegate to the assembly later dismissed Livni’s speech as “absurd distortions and baseless allegations” and asked the international community to take “urgent and decisive action” regarding Israel’s presumed nuclear weapons arsenal (Alexandra Olson, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Oct. 2).

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner today called on western powers to continue pressing forward with a draft sanctions resolution against Iran, Reuters reported.

Kouchner said that a nuclear-armed Iran would complicate the already dangerous situation in the Middle East.

“While the European dialogue continues … we have to work on sanctions so as to be taken seriously,” Kouchner said.

"Is that the right solution?  It's part of the solution.  Should we go further one day?  It's possible," he said without giving further detail (Reuters/Washington Post, Oct. 2).

Elsewhere, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said today that when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Tehran’s nuclear dispute with the international community a “closed” matter last week, he meant that the nuclear program had entered a “technical” phase only requiring the involvement of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Press TV reported.

“President Ahmadinejad meant that considering the recent cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, the political issues have ended and the case has entered a technical phase.

“Of course the files of all countries are open at the IAEA and the cooperation between these countries and the IAEA continues,” he said (Press TV, Oct. 2, 2007).

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