Washington splits over best policy to halt Iran's nuclear plan

[cal04]

Visiting MPs were astonished by a lack of consensus on the eve of the crucial nuclear meeting

THE US Administration is riven by divisions over how it should tackle Iran’s defiance of the international community with its nuclear programme, according to British MPs returning from a fact-finding mission to Washington. They expressed astonishment that widely differing policies — ranging from military action to diplomatic soft-pedalling — were still being debated even as the International Atomic Energy Agency board prepared for its vital meeting in Vienna today.

Iran yesterday raised the stakes by vowing that it would resume large-scale uranium enrichment if the meeting referred the Islamic republic to the UN Security Council. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, who will today hold talks in Washington with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, is advocating a cautious approach. “Nobody has said that we have to rush immediately to sanctions of some kind,” she said at the weekend. “I think the Security Council will have to have a serious discussion about what the next steps will be.” Members of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee returning from Washington were, however, confused and disorientated about the direction of US policy towards Iran.

They had held talks with John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, who is a hawk on the issue. He told the MPs that he wanted a “Chapter 7 resolution” under which the UN would authorise military action, such as air strikes, against Iran. Mr Bolton was quoted as saying: “They must know everything is on the table and they must understand what that means. We can hit different points along the line. You only have to take out one part of their nuclear operation to take the whole thing down.” Mike Gapes, the committee chairman, said that this was one of “at least three views” they had heard on Iran from within the Administration.

Another option, which he ascribed to the Pentagon, where they had talks with Peter Rodman, the Assistant Defence Secretary, and Brigadier-General Carter Hamm, formerly the US commander in northern Iraq, was to throw the issue “into the Security Council like a hand grenade and see what happens”. However, Mr Gapes said that both the CIA and Richard Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, believed that the US should “ride it out” rather than engage in “posturing”, because of a lack of clarity as to what the Security Council would agree. Going to the UN could lead to a rerun of the attempts to get agreement on Iraq before the war.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2071918,00.html

[LynnTheDem]

1. "British MPs returning from a fact-finding mission to Washington"

Like the British MPs returning from a fact-finding mission to Washington over attacking Iraq, where they discussed the need to lie to the public?

[DemInDistress]

2. you only have to take down one part to knock out the system...

h'm..what if they took out one major electrical grid in the usa, would 100 million AMERICANS be affected? remember Aug 14 2003, blackout in the Northeast, 50 million people without power for a day or more...h'm

[f-bush]

3. IMHO we are headed for war with Iran

The poll numbers for shrub suck, he's looked on as a dumb shit and ineffectual. What better way to look tough and presidential. Rally the non thinking folk behind you.

I pray to God I am wrong, but that is how I see it. Specially if the Dems take back the House. Could be used to defuse impeachment.

I think we should be out in the streets now, raising such a fuss against any aggression against Iran, that this country would think twice about going through such an upheaval.