AFP: The top US military officer said here Friday that Washington does not consider military action as an immediate option to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. 
ANKARA, March 24, 2006 (AFP) – The top US military officer said here Friday that Washington does not consider military action as an immediate option to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran is a long way from needing any kind of military solution,” General Peter Pace, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said in an interview with the NTV news channel during a visit to Turkey.
“The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia– other countries, certainly the Turkish government — are all working to persuade the Iranian government to function in a way that is not dangerous or threatening to its neighbors, to have power, but not nuclear weapons power.
“There are many more things to be done politically and diplomatically before anybody, any country, considers some kind of a military option,” he said.
Pace denied media speculation that the United States might be seeking the use of Turkish military bases for a possible strike on Iran, Turkey’s eastern neighbor.
Earlier in the day, Pace addressed a conference on global terrorism in Ankara, and on Thursday met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the chief of general staff, General Hilmi Ozkok.
