From The Sunday Times
September 2, 2007
Sarah Baxter, Washington
THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200
targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military
capability in three days, according to a national security expert.
Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the
Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not
preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.
Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The National Interest,
a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that
the US military had concluded: “Whether you go for pinprick strikes
or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be
the same.” It was, he added, a “very legitimate strategic calculus”.
President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last
week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East “under the shadow
of a nuclear holocaust”. He warned that the US and its allies would
confront Iran “before it is too late”.
One Washington source said the “temperature was rising” inside the
administration. Bush was “sending a message to a number of
audiences”, he said – to the Iranians and to members of the United
Nations security council who are trying to weaken a tough third
resolution on sanctions against Iran for flouting a UN ban on
uranium enrichment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week reported
“significant” cooperation with Iran over its nuclear programme and
said that uranium enrichment had slowed. Tehran has promised to
answer most questions from the agency by November, but Washington
fears it is stalling to prevent further sanctions. Iran continues to
maintain it is merely developing civilian nuclear power.
Bush is committed for now to the diplomatic route but thinks Iran is
moving towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. According to one well
placed source, Washington believes it would be prudent to use rapid,
overwhelming force, should military action become necessary.
Israel, which has warned it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear
weapons, has made its own preparations for airstrikes and is said to
be ready to attack if the Americans back down.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, a spokesman for the National Council of
Resistance of Iran, which uncovered the existence of Iran’s uranium
enrichment plant at Natanz, said the IAEA was being strung along. “A
number of nuclear sites have not even been visited by the IAEA,” he
said. “They’re giving a clean bill of health to a regime that is
known to have practised deception.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, irritated the Bush
administration last week by vowing to fill a “power vacuum” in Iraq.
But Washington believes Iran is already fighting a proxy war with
the Americans in Iraq.
The Institute for the Study of War last week released a report by
Kimberly Kagan that explicitly uses the term “proxy war” and claims
that with the Sunni insurgency and Al-Qaeda in Iraq “increasingly
under control”, Iranian intervention is the “next major problem the
coalition must tackle”.
Bush noted that the number of attacks on US bases and troops by
Iranian-supplied munitions had increased in recent months – “despite
pledges by Iran to help stabilise the security situation in Iraq”.
It explains, in part, his lack of faith in diplomacy with the
Iranians. But Debat believes the Pentagon’s plans for military
action involve the use of so much force that they are unlikely to be
used and would seriously stretch resources in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Contact our advertising team for advertising and sponsorship in
Times Online, The Times and The Sunday Times. Search globrix.com to
buy or rent UK property.
© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and
Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy.To inquire about a
licence to reproduce material from Times Online, The Times or The
Sunday Times, click here.This website is published by a member of
the News International Group. News International Limited, 1 Virginia
St, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News
International group and is registered in England No 81701. VAT
number GB 243 8054 69.