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| International |
| Iran, Syria get grave warning from Powell |
| 2003-03-31 |
| Concern mounts as Tehran nears nuclear capability Syria faces `critical choice,' Powell says OLIVIA WARD It's not just Rumsfeld raising the profile of Syria and Iran. JERUSALEM—While American and British forces are battling for victory against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the next targets are already flickering across the diplomatic radar. Israeli strategists are hoping that one of the first will be Iran, and they are urging the United States to take measures to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions and its sponsorship of militants hostile to Israel. This weekend U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran of sponsoring hundreds of exiled Iraqi Islamists who have been travelling over the Iranian border to fight against Saddam in Iraq. "The Badr Corps is trained, equipped and directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard," Rumsfeld said. "And we will hold the Iranian government responsible for their actions and will view Badr Corps activity inside Iraq as unhelpful." The Pentagon is also drawing up a blacklist of foreign companies that invested in Iran's energy sector, with a view to cutting them off from post-war reconstruction contracts for Iraq. In another signal of a possible widening war, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday demanded Syria decide whether it wants to risk supporting Iraq, Associated Press reports. "Syria ... now faces a critical choice," Powell said in a speech to a powerful U.S. Jewish lobby in Washington. "Syria can continue to direct support for terrorist groups and the dying regime of Saddam Hussein, or it can embark on a different and more hopeful course," he said. "Either way, Syria has the responsibility for its choices and for the consequences." Powell also warned Iran to halt its quest for weapons of mass destruction and reaffirmed the Bush administration's determination to oust Saddam. His remarks drew strong applause from thousands of American Jews attending the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's policy conference. Turning to Iran — which Bush has denounced as a member of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea — Powell said it must stop its support of terrorism against Israel and ``Iran must stop its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and the ability to produce them.''Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been rising since Bush's denunciation. The "axis-of-evil" label dismayed reformers in Iran, where political power is split between conservative mullahs and a more liberal elected president. But Western anxiety about the possible development of a nuclear bomb has eclipsed fears of disturbing the delicate balance of power, and the war in Iraq has only boosted Washington's unease about Tehran's nuclear intentions. "Once the clerics have a nuclear weapon they could more aggressively try to influence Iraq's political system, which will hardly be set in stone two years from now," wrote March Gerecht, a former CIA officer, in the New York Times. Israel's worries go back farther than the Iraq war. "Iran is marching forward to the first generation of nuclear capability, and missile delivery capability," says Dr. Uzi Arad, former head of analysis for the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service. "That is very troubling." Over the past decade, Iran has poured money and resources into the development of the 2,000-kilometre-range Shihab-4 missile capable of striking at Israel, and is said to be working on even longer-range ones. "Iran has passed the point of no return," says Uzi Rubin of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs. "The Iranians cannot be stopped anymore. They will continue with their programs regardless of what the international community thinks." Equally worrying, says Arad, is the parallel development of a nuclear program that Israeli intelligence services believe is proceeding at a steady pace toward a viable bomb. "Clearly you do not develop missiles to carry conventional warheads," he said. Iran is well placed to become the next nuclear-armed country, after India and Pakistan. It has its own uranium, a vital bomb ingredient, and will soon be capable of enriching it into fuel for a nuclear bomb. Furthermore, Tehran has refused to give the International Atomic Energy Agency access to sites and scientific records that could confirm or deny that it has a nuclear weapons program. Last year, the watchdog agency discovered centrifuge plants for processing nuclear fuel at a secret site south of Tehran, ringing alarm bells in Washington. When the plants are operational, they will be capable of generating enough weapons-grade uranium for a number of nuclear warheads. Israel and Washington have pointed fingers at Russia, which they say helped to speed up Iran's nuclear progress by supplying nuclear fuel and expertise for the 1,000-megawatt reactor at Bushehr. Moscow initially denied that Iran's intentions were anything but peaceful, but now says it was "not informed" of less innocent developments. Since the war with Iraq loomed, American relations with Moscow have deteriorated. Bush has so far avoided any confrontation but he has taken a strong stand against Tehran. America's adversarial stance and its invasion of Iraq have sparked protests and anti-U.S. feeling not seen since the radical days of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the street last week, chanting "death to America" and demanding that the British embassy be closed down. The U.S. has had no diplomatic ties with Tehran since 1979 when the American embassy was stormed by Khomeini's militant supporters and its staff was held hostage. Although Iran has no love for Saddam, with whom it fought a devastating eight-year war, many Iranians find a U.S. occupation of a neighbouring Islamic country unacceptable. Israel, meanwhile, is keeping a wary eye on Iran, which many here believe is at least as dangerous to Israeli security as Iraq. Although politicians have refrained from calling for a military assault, they have urged that some action be taken against Iran. "I'm not building a case for any concrete line of action," says Arad. "But there is a problem growing and festering along the lines of Iraq." |
| Posted by:kgb |
| #1 "The Pentagon is also drawing up a blacklist of foreign companies that invested in Iran's energy sector, with a view to cutting them off from post-war reconstruction contracts for Iraq." Sounds like a Franco-German opportunity. That'll leave the Iranians with a nice warm and feelie. Let's compound the sh*t list standing of all parties concerned. |
| Posted by: Don 2003-03-31 09:06:47 |