GlobalSecurity.Org
February 17, 2006
View Original Article at: GlobalSecurity.Org
Target Iran - Air Strikes - 2006 Developments On 10 January 2006 Iran broke International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seals at the Natanz enrichment facility. The IAEA and many countries expressed unhappiness with this development, although Iran described its actions as "research" only. Iranian officials said they only plan on a small-scale pilot program feeding uranium hexafluoride gas made from yellowcake into a centrifuge cascade at Natanz to be spun into enriched uranium. IAEA Director-General Muhammad el-Baradei informed the IAEA governing board on 10 January that Iran intends to begin "small-scale" uranium enrichment at its Natanz facility.
On 13 January 2006 British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said military action against Iran is not an option. "This can only be resolved by peaceful means, let us be clear about that," he said. "Nobody is talking about invading Iran or taking military action against Iran. And, again to quote the White House, Iran is not Iraq." On 21 January 2006 Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on 21 January that his country was prepared for military action to stop Iran's nuclear program.
On 22 January 2006 Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz hinted that Israel is preparing for military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. "Israel cannot accept an Iranian nuclear capability and it must defend itself, with all that that implies," Mofaz said. "We are preparing," he added.
On 22 January 2006 radical Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said his militiamen will help defend Iran if it comes under attack, as the international community pressures Iran about its nuclear ambitions.
On 25 January 2006 Iranian Defense Minister Mustafa Mohammad Najjar today warned Israel that, if it attacks Iran, it will fall into an "eternal coma like [Ariel] Sharon," Israel's prime minister, who remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital. He said that the vigilance by the Iranian nation would eventually neutralize all "evil plots" by both Israel and the United States.
On 25 January 2006 Joseph Cirincione, senior associate and director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, challenged the military option in an interview with Radio Farda: "President [Mahmud] Ahmadinejad's government is very unpopular at the moment. The Islamic regime has had problems for years now, but the new hard line president's actions, for example trying to ban Western music and crack down on how people behave, what they listen to, and what they watch has made him an unpopular figure inside Iran except for this issue of the nuclear problem. This is a nationalist cause for the Iranian people. ... If the U.S. or Israel would attack Iran -- even a limited strike on facilities such as the uranium- conversion plant at Isfahan -- it would inflame the Iranian public, it would inflame the anger throughout the entire Muslim world. [It is] the one thing that could turn this government from an unpopular government into a highly successful government."
On 25 January 2006 a "Los Angeles Times" / Bloomberg survey found that 57 percent of the 1,555 adult Americans polled "favor military intervention" if the Iranian government pursues a program that could be used for the manufacturing of nuclear arms. Responding to a similar question one year ago, only 50 percent of respondents favored using the military in Iran.
On 29 January 2006 President Bush said on CBS's "Face the Nation" program that the world cannot allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons. "Our strategy is to present and hold together a united front to say to the Iranians, 'Your designs to have a nuclear weapon or your desire to have the capability of making a nuclear weapon is unacceptable,'" he said. Bush said precautions over Iran's nuclear program are necessary because Iran has a "non-transparent government" and because the leader of Iran has openly stated his desire to destroy Israel. "I think it's best I just leave it that all options should be on the table, and the last option is the military option. "
On 31 January 2006 the Islamic Republic Army's senior commander in Qazvin and Zanjan, Brigadier General Bahram Babaiepour, said the enemy is in doubt about choosing the military option for invasion of Islamic Iran's territory. "Being quite aware of the Islamic Republic armed forces' full combat preparedness with the full backing of the Commander-In-Chief of Armed Forces, the people and officials, enemies have come to the conclusion that military option is by no means effective," he said.
On 31 January 2006 a "Washington Post"-ABC News poll found that only 42 percent of Americans favor bombing Iranian nuclear sites. Some 54 percent oppose this course of action and 70 percent of respondents said they back international economic sanctions in an effort to stop Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
On 31 January 2006 the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council agreed that Iran should be reported to the Security Council because of questions regarding its nuclear program. The decision was announced following hours of talks in London by the foreign ministers of the five countries -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China -- along with Germany. The Security Council would wait for a report -- due to be delivered by IAEA Director- General Muhammad el-Baradei at a scheduled meeting in March -- before taking any action to reinforce the authority of the IAEA.
On 02 February 2006 Defense Minister Mustafa Mohammad-Najjar told a gathering of military and Police officers in the southern port of Bushehr that Iran's armies are ready to meet any threat, ISNA reported. "The armed forces have such a high level of readiness [that] they will deal their crushing blows to the aggressors, like a thunderbolt," in responding to any attack, he said.
IAEA governing board members were in Vienna on 2 and 3 February to discuss a resolution on the Iranian nuclear program and the possibility of reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for suspected nonproliferation violations.
On 04 February 2006 the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member governing board voted to report Iran to the UN Security Council, international news agencies reported. The only countries that voted against the resolution were Cuba, Syria, and Venezuela. Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya, and South Africa abstained.
On 04 February 2006 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a letter to the head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) ordered the rescinding of the voluntary suspension of the Additional protocol to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other related cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Organization.
On 04 February 2006 Senator John McCain said the only thing worse than military action is a nuclear-armed Iran. McCain added that military force is a "totally undesirable option" of last resort.
On 14 February 2006 Iran said it has started small-scale uranium enrichment - an initial step in the process of producing fuel for civilian nuclear reactors or atomic weapons. Top Iranian nuclear official Javad Vaeidi told reporters in Tehran that work has resumed at the Natanz nuclear plant. He did not elaborate. Earlier, diplomats at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said Iranian technicians have fed uranium gas into centrifuge machines for enrichment.
On 16 February 2006 French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy for the first time called Iran's nuclear program a "clandestine military" project. Douste-Blazy told French television that it is, as he put it, "very simple: no civilian nuclear program can explain Iran's nuclear program." Douste-Blazy called the enrichment "a clandestine military nuclear program."
On 17 February 2006 Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said the Islamic republic has injected uranium gas into a small number of centrifuges, a step in the process of uranium enrichment. He said that Iran was not yet at the point of getting enriched uranium, and that several more months of work may be necessary.