[NYTr] Israel Helps Push the Inevitability of War on Iran

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

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Jerusalem Post - Sep 16, 2007
http://www.jpost.com
http://tinyurl.com/2llzn9

Gates: US favors diplomacy with Iran

The nuclear Iranian crisis forces  the world "to prepare for the
worst"  which "is war," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said
Sunday evening, while emphasizing  that negotiations should still be
the preferred course of action. 

Kouchner, quoted by French daily  Le Figaro, added that "Iran does
whatever it pleases in Iraq ... one  cannot find in the entire world a
crisis greater than this one." 

Kouchner's statements came just  hours after US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates reiterated the Bush administration's commitment, at  least
for the time being, to using  diplomatic and economic means  tocounter
the potential nuclear  threat from Iran. 

Speculation has persisted about  preparations for a military strike
against Iran for its alleged support for terrorism and its nuclear
program. 

Gates, in a broadcast interview, said he would not discuss
"hypotheticals"  about what President George W. Bush  "may or may not
do." 

"I think that the administration  'believes at this point that
continuing  to try and deal with the Iranian threat,  the Iranian
challenge, through  diplomatic and economic means is by  far the
preferable approach. That's the  one we are using," the Pentagon chief
said.

"We always say all options are on the  table, but clearly, the
diplomatic and  economic approach is the one that we  are pursuing," he
added. 

The diplomatic approach takes  center stage at a conference in
Washington on Friday. The US  hosts the UN Security Council's  four
other permanent members -  Britain, China, France, Russia  - plus
Germany to press for new  penalties against oil-rich Iran. 

But earlier Sunday, the Daily Telegraph  reported that Bush and his
associates  were seriously considering declaring  war on Iran and have
even listed specific  facilities that would be targeted in such  an
event, while Secretary of State  Condoleezza Rice has slowly given up
the idea of finding a diplomatic solution  to the country's persistence
in enriching  uranium. 

According to senior US defense and  intelligence officials that spoke
with  the Telegraph, the Pentagon has  gathered a list of up to 2,000
targets  including a major base run by the  Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Quds Force in the south. 

Pentagon and CIA officers said that  such a war would come to pass as
a  result of a "carefully calibrated  program of escalation" that
would  lead to a "military showdown with  Iran," the officials told the
newspaper.

This scenario could arise once it  was apparent that diplomatic
efforts  with the country were hopeless. 

When Iran would be internationally  denounced for its interference in
Iraq,  the US could conduct cross border  raids on Iranian training
camps and  bomb factories. 

The report said that the raids would  provoke a "major Iranian
response"  that could result in a halt to Gulf oil supplies; this in
turn, said experts,  would provide legitimacy to strike  Iran's nuclear
facilities and armed  forces. 

An intelligence officer noted that  the US military had "two major
contingency plans" for air strikes  on Iran.

"One is to bomb only the nuclear  facilities. The second option is for
a much bigger strike that would - over two or three days - hit all of
the significant military sites as well.  This plan involves more than
2,000  targets." 

The Pentagon has isolated its main  target as the Fajr Garrison in
Ahwaz  - where it is believed that Iran  manufactures self-propelled
missiles used against coalition forces in Iraq. 

A source told the Telegraph that "a  strike will probably follow a
gradual  escalation. Over the next few weeks  and months the US will
build tensions  and evidence around Iranian activities  in Iraq." 

Meanwhile, the Telegraph claimed  that Rice was prepared to come to  an
agreement with Vice-President Dick Cheney and consent to military
action against Iran. 

Rice has been pressured by "senior counter-proliferation officials" to
admit that military action may be  necessary, a State Department
official  told the newspaper. She is now working  with Cheney to "find
a way to reconcile  their positions and present a united front  to the
President."

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