Daily Telegraph: The Bush administration is trying to find covert ways to sabotage or delay Iran’s nuclear weapons programme believing that diplomatic deals struck with European nations have barely slowed Teheran’s rush towards the bomb. Daily Telegraph
By David Rennie in Washington
The Bush administration is trying to find covert ways to sabotage or delay Iran’s nuclear weapons programme believing that diplomatic deals struck with European nations have barely slowed Teheran’s rush towards the bomb.
Intelligence and administration officials are urgently trying to find secret means “to disrupt or delay as long as we can” the development of an Iranian bomb, one said. The urgency stems, in part, from “increasingly strong private statements” by Israeli counterparts that they may be forced to take military action to stop Iran achieving its dream of a nuclear arsenal.
Iranian missiles could deliver a nuclear payload to Israel or US bases in the gulf
One American official told the New York Times that the Israelis were “doing what they can to delay the Iranian programme, and preparing military options”.
It is uncertain that it is possible to stop Iran joining the nuclear club, thanks to the know-how Teheran bought from Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former Pakistani nuclear chief, US officials told the newspaper.
With his appearances now focused on the November elections, President George W Bush rarely mentions Iran and North Korea in public, although the two nations were founder members of his “axis of evil” with Iraq.
Mr Bush’s Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, has sought to attack him for ignoring North Korea and Iran and concentrating on Iraq, whose nuclear programme has turned out to have been largely moribund.
Such Democratic charges have not gained much traction with ordinary voters. In Middle America the Iraq war is overwhelmingly viewed as a response to the September 11 attacks and part of a campaign to keep America safe from further terror attacks, rather than as a piece in a larger geopolitical puzzle.
Iran has announced in the past two weeks that it was resuming the construction of centrifuges needed to produce weapons grade uranium, dealing a seemingly fatal blow to a deal brokered by European nations last year, to limit Iran’s nuclear research.
The national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said US leadership had brought the world – including the United Nations watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Authority – round to seeing the menace of a nuclear-armed Iran.
