US weighs joint strike on Iran nuclear sites

John Walcott
March 2, 2012
www.smh.com.au

OBAMA administration officials are escalating warnings that the United States could join Israel in attacking Iran if the regime does not dispel concerns that its nuclear-research program is aimed at producing weapons.

Four days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Washington, Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz said the Joint Chiefs of Staff have prepared military options to strike Iranian nuclear sites in the event of a conflict.

''What we can do, you wouldn't want to be in the area,'' General Schwartz said.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Pentagon officials said military options being prepared started with providing aerial refuelling for Israeli planes and also included attacking the pillars of the clerical regime, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Qods Force, regular Iranian military bases and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Pentagon plans are classified.

''There's no group in America more determined to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon than the Joint Chiefs of Staff,'' Joint Chiefs chairman Army General Martin Dempsey told the House Budget Committee on Wednesday.

Separately, unnamed US officials told The Washington Post that US military planners are increasingly confident that sustained attacks with the Air Force's 30,000-pound ''bunker- buster'' bombs could put Iran's deeply buried uranium enrichment plant at Fordo out of commission.

The latest American warnings of possible military action against Iran come after meetings between top Israeli and Obama administration officials failed to resolve differences over when an attack would become necessary, according to officials of both countries who have participated in the discussions.

''Because there is uncertainty about the administration's will to act in the Israelis' minds, and more importantly in the Iranians' minds, it's very important that we don't just say that all options are on the table, but also show that they are, by some overt means,'' Michigan Republican Mike Rogers, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said.

The main difference between the US and Israel, said American officials, was where to draw the line on Iran's nuclear program.

Obama administration officials have suggested that the trigger for military action should be a decision by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to enrich uranium beyond a current level of 20 per cent, which supports nuclear power generation, to a weapons-grade level 85 or 90 per cent.

US and Israeli intelligence officials said they agreed that such a decision would be hard to detect until some time after it had been made.

While their American counterparts are focused on enrichment, Israeli officials described Iran's nuclear program as a three-legged stool that also included efforts in different locations to develop a missile warhead capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, a trigger for nuclear explosions and other components of a nuclear device.

While Israeli officials told the Americans that their ability to strike Iran was greater than most people recognise, Iran's enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordo would be extremely difficult for the Israeli Air Force to destroy with its largest weapon, the 5000-pound GBU-28.

US and Israeli officials have concluded that Iran might be content with a computer test of a new weapon rather than detonating one in the desert, thanks in part to confidence inspired by significant North Korean assistance.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-weighs-joint-strike-on-iran-nuclear-sites-20120301-1u5t3.html#ixzz1ntSmCVk9