Bush denies preparing attack against Iran

By Edward Luce in Washington

Published: January 26 2007 19:37 | Last updated: January 26 2007 19:37

George W. Bush on Friday sought to deny widespread rumours his
administration was preparing some kind of military action against Iran.
Mr Bush confirmed a report in Friday's Washington Post that he had
authorised US troops to shoot and kill Iranian operatives in Iraq, but
denied this was a prelude to stronger action.

"We believe we can solve our problems with Iran diplomatically,"
said the US president. "It makes sense that if somebody is trying to
harm our troops, or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing
innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them."

But the US president's relatively emollient comments are unlikely to
quell speculation about the reasons behind the recent escalation of
White House rhetoric towards Iran. In his prime time address on the
"new way forward in Iraq" two weeks ago, Mr Bush pledged to
"interrupt the flow of support [for extremists in Iraq] from Iran and
Syria...We will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced
weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

In his State of the Union address to the joint houses of Congress on
Tuesday, he lumped Iran with al-Qaeda. "It has also become clear that
we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who...take direction
from the regime in Iran. The Shia and Sunni extremists are different
faces of the same totalitarian threat."

Last week, Mr Bush ordered a second US aircraft carrier to the Gulf and
the deployment of more Patriot missiles in US military bases there.
Richard Haass, former head of policy planning at the State Department
in the first Bush administration, said the US president was leaving
both the diplomatic and military option open.

"You could interpret Bush's recent actions towards Iran in two ways
- either he is increasing pressure on the regime in order to soften
it up for talks over its uranium enrichment plans, or this is classic
gunboat diplomacy in which the US is preparing for some kind of
punitive action," said Mr Haass. "My guess is that Mr Bush's
actions leave room for either scenario and the Bush administration
remains divided over which to pursue."

Both Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and Bob Gates, secretary
of defence, are thought to be pushing the White House to open talks
with Iranian, having softened it up with the recent application of
United Nations-approved economic sanctions on Iran and the beefing up
of US naval forces off the Iranian coast.

"The Bush administration believes that Iran sees the US as a kind of
paper tiger, and this is Washington's answer to that," said Afshin
Molavi, at the New America Foundation in Washington. "The danger to
this strategy is that it carries the risk of accidentally leading into
some kind of military confrontation."

However, others in the Bush administration, notably Dick Cheney, who
last year warned Iran that it would face "meaningful consequences"
if it continued to foment violence in Iraq, are thought to be arguing
for the military option.

This interpretation is put forward by leading Democratic lawmakers on
Capitol Hill, who have sought - but not received - assurances that
the Bush administration has no plans to extend its military operations
in Iraq across the border to Iran.

Meanwhile, in a short statement to commemorate International Holocaust
Day on Friday, Iran was the only country Mr Bush cited by name:
"Remembering the victims, heroes, and lessons of the Holocaust is
particularly important today as Holocaust denial continues, urged on by
the Iranian regime, which perversely seeks to call into question the
historical fact of the Nazis' campaign of mass murder," he said.


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