We have prepared a military option for Iran, US general says
James Mattis (photo credit: CC-BY U.S. Naval War College/Flickr)
Sanctions are not preventing Iran’s nuclear progress, the US Army commander in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday, adding that he had prepared a military option.
A simple “No, sir” was General James Mattis’s response when asked whether “the current diplomatic and economic efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capability” were working.
“I think we have to continue sanctions, but have other options ready,” said Mattis, of the Central Command, to the Armed Services Committee during an official hearing.
Mattis said Iran could be convinced to alter its course by “a purely cost-benefit ratio,” but at the moment, he noted, the “nuclear industry continues” apace, despite sanctions.
“Between economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and encouragement of behavior that does not cost them such a degree of political support that they end up losing power, there may yet be a way to bring them to their senses,” the general stated.
Such means to bring Iran “to its knees,” Mattis commented in response to another question, did not necessarily entail “open conflict,” but a military operation is “one of the options that I have to have prepared for the president.”
Mattis’s statements came in the wake of a fresh effort on the part of the West to curb Iran’s nuclear program via diplomatic means, and echoed comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
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French President Francois Hollande (R) and President of the Israeli regime Shimon Peres meet in Paris, March 8, 2013.
Sat Mar 9, 2013 6:55AM GMT
The United States, the Israeli regime and some of their allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear energy activities to covertly build atomic weapons capability.
Using the false allegation, Washington and the European Union have imposed several rounds of illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
French President Francois Hollande and President of the Israeli regime Shimon Peres say sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program are “biting” but stress the importance of imposing tougher restrictions on Tehran.
“I have said how much we want the sanctions to be beefed up, which are already efficient,” Hollande said following a meeting with Peres in Paris on Friday.
He added that Paris believes that “economic sanctions against Iran should be aggravated.”
The United States, the Israeli regime and some of their allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear energy activities to covertly build atomic weapons.
Using the false allegation, Washington and the European Union have imposed several rounds of illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Israel has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities based on the unfounded allegation.
Iran has categorically rejected the claim and emphasized that its nuclear energy program follows civilian objectives.
The Israeli regime’s president also called for stronger bans on Iran and said, “The sanctions are effective more than we thought but not enough… and I was very glad to hear from the president (Hollande) that he plans to take more measures because if we can end this danger without military use, it will be better.”
On March 4, the firebrand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again called for a “clear and credible military threat” against Iran.
The Israeli premier claimed that although Iran has not yet crossed “the red line” in its nuclear energy program, it is “putting itself in a position” to do so “very quickly.”
The Israeli threats come despite international efforts to find a political solution to the Western standoff over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, Russia, France, Britain and the US) plus Germany – the P5+1 group – held the latest round of their talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on February 27-28. The two sides agreed to convene again in the Kazakh city on April 5-6 to continue the negotiations after holding “expert-level” talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on March 17-18.
After the Almaty meeting, both Iran and the P5+1 group expressed hope and optimism about the prospect of their comprehensive negotiations.
On Thursday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei pointed to the West’s track record of disregarding its own agreements and statements and noted that the next round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group will be a test of Western sincerity.
SF/HJL/MA
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Tue Feb 5, 2013 2:36PM GMT
Interview with Chris Bambery
I think the problem is not so much with Iran’s nuclear program. I think the main problem is with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I think America in particular has never forgiven in 1979 the resolution and the toppling of the Shah and the hostage crisis, which followed. It was a humiliation to the United States.”
An analyst says US disdain for the Islamic Republic of Iran is the issue, not its civilian nuclear program. The US still feels humiliated from Iran’s toppling of its despot.
Press TV has interviewed Chris Bambery, political commentator, London about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: A lot of what Mr. Jalili has said makes a lot of sense. What exactly does the US and its allies have as a problem with the fact that Iran has this civilian nuclear program?
Bambery: I think the problem is not so much with Iran’s nuclear program. I think the main problem is with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I think America in particular has never forgiven in 1979 the resolution and the toppling of the Shah and the hostage crisis, which followed. It was a humiliation to the United States.
And I think you’d have to say this is real hypocrisy. The statement made today I think is to be welcomed and it’s a good question of who supplied this technology the means by which Israel got nuclear weapons. And the answer is very simple: Britain and France.
Britain and France provided the plutonium and so on in the 1950s and 1960s on the back of the alliance if some will remember in 1956 Israel, Britain and France when they invaded Egypt.
So that is who supplied the technology and no one has ever called as far as I’m aware, the Americans, the British, for inspections of an Israeli nuclear facility – they’ve got nuclear weapons developed secretly. They refuse to deny it, but they are vehemently in opposition to the Iranian nuclear program.
Again it was said today the Iranian government is very clear that it is for peaceful purposes, civilian purposes and they have the right to do that.
I think it’s also worth a mention that in the 1970s Britain American and Germany had no problem with an Iranian nuclear program because that was under the rule of the despot, the Shah.
They were encouraging Iran to develop a nuclear program because the Shah was of course a key ally in the region. So the hypocrisy is unbelievable here both in regards to their actions towards Iran and towards Israel.
Press TV: These talks that Iran is set to hold with the P5+1 group of countries. Mr. Jalili made it clear that Iran was ready to go into these talks in January, but the group keeps delaying and procrastinating.
What really is going on behind the scenes do you think?
Bambery: I think every time it comes closer to an agreement the group changes the rules. And it’s America who is behind that, they keep raising the bar for Iran. There already has been a compromise agreed by Iran courtesy of Brazil over the whole question of uranium enrichment.
Iran has agreed to that and then that was changed at the urging of the Americans. But it seems time and time again the Iranian government accepts something that is put on the table only to have that withdrawn and further demands added on. So I think it has to be a question of good faith.
I think it is time that there was negotiations, Iran has said it is willing to negotiate and I think it is time there was a conclusion.
America should be told to stop raising the odds here. They seem to be putting a demand on Iran to stop their policy and the Iranian government has made it clear and made it clear again today that it is not developing nuclear weapons and it’s opposed to nuclear weapons.
I think the demand that Iran has made for a nuclear-free region and indeed a nuclear-free world is to be welcomed by all peace-loving people.
I should also add I am speaking from London where the British government is set to spend billions it can hardly afford on a new generation of weapons of mass destruction to replace trident nuclear weapons.
So Britain is developing nuclear power stations, Britain is going to buy nuclear weapons from the United states, but then it’s telling Iran what to do. This is again hypocrisy on a grand scale.
SC/JR
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