Attack on Iran Said To Be Imminent
Pastor Dale Morgan
Attack on Iran Said To Be Imminent*
BY BENNY AVNI -
Staff Reporter of the New York Sun
September 28, 2007
UNITED NATIONS — In a sign that U.N. Security Council-based diplomacy is
losing steam, a number of sources are reporting that a military strike
against Iran's nuclear facilities may be imminent. France and America
also are pushing for tighter economic sanctions against Tehran, without
U.N. approval.
Yesterday's edition of Le Canard Enchaîné, a French weekly known for its
investigative journalism, reported details of an alleged
Israeli-American plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. The frontpage
headline read: "A report sent to the Elysée — Putin tells Tehran:
They're going to bomb you!"
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, also expressed
concerns to reporters in New York that an attack on Iran might be imminent.
Like most stories in the French paper, the article was based on unnamed
sources who said that in order to reduce casualties, the attack against
Iran is planned for October 15, the end of the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan. Israel would bomb the first targets while America would
orchestrate a second wave of strikes, the report said.
However, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, who recently
spoke of preparing for war with Iran, berated reporters yesterday,
telling them that he had said war is the "worst option." Instead, he is
now calling for "diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy."
As foreign ministers representing the five permanent members of the
Security Council — China, Russia, France, Britain, and America — and
Germany plan to sit down Friday for a long-planned meeting to discuss
ideas for addressing Iran's refusal to end uranium enrichment, Mr.
Kouchner told reporters that China and Russia are likely to delay any
significant decision until at least December.
"It would be very difficult to convince the Russians and the Chinese
before" December, he said. A Russian diplomat told The New York Sun on
Monday that Moscow would call on the council to await the conclusion of
a new round of diplomacy conducted by the director of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei.
At a breakfast with reporters yesterday, Mr. Kouchner said he had "spent
hours" with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, trying to
convince him to approve council sanctions against Iran. Russia, Mr.
Kouchner said, is attempting to regain its top world status, while "we
treat them, they told me, like little adolescents."
Meanwhile, a former American ambassador to the United Nations, John
Bolton, indicated yesterday that President Sarkozy of France may be a
more reliable ally on Iran than Prime Minister Brown of Britain.
"It's not at all clear where Brown is at," Mr. Bolton told the Sun. "The
question is, ‘Will Britain follow in the footsteps of France?'" Either
way, Mr. Bolton said he did not invest too much hope in Security Council
diplomacy.
Some American diplomats are saying the next phase of diplomacy with Iran
may involve a separate track of sanctions that would be imposed without
Security Council approval.
Mr. Kouchner said yesterday that the French government is trying to lean
on companies like the oil giant Total to end ties with Iran. Between
2005 and 2006, he said, French commerce with Iran was cut in half.
But an unnamed German government official told Reuters yesterday,
"Unlike the United States and the French, the German government is not
ready to go outside the U.N. for sanctions." The official expressed
doubts that Europe could reach a consensus on such sanctions. German
companies such as Siemens, BASF, Mercedes, and Volkswagen maintain
strong business ties with Iran. In 2006, such companies reportedly
exported goods worth $5.7 billion to Iran, up from $5 billion in 2004.
In Vienna, Mr. ElBaradei is preparing a report that is not expected to
be ready before December. In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly
earlier this week, President Ahmadinejad of Iran said the "nuclear issue
of Iran is now closed," and he said Tehran would stop dealing with the
Security Council and would negotiate only with the IAEA.
Mr. ElBaradei recently reached an agreement with Iran that allows it to
report on outstanding nuclear issues over a long period of time. The
Iranians, nonetheless, are "very, very, very firm that they don't want
to stop enrichment," Mr. Kouchner said yesterday.
Mr. ElBaradei, who is charged with reporting on technical nuclear
issues, was berated by Secretary of State Rice, who said the Tehran
accords amounted to conducting private diplomacy.
Before he became U.N. ambassador, Mr. Bolton sought to mount a campaign
to unseat Mr. ElBaradei. A former secretary of state, Colin Powell, "was
never enthusiastic about it," Mr. Bolton said yesterday. "When Rice
became secretary of state, the winds came out of the sails" of the
campaign to unseat the IAEA director. "Stopping him would have required
a lot of effort," Mr. Bolton said, but he added that Mr. ElBaradei's
current behavior on Iran "proves that it was worthwhile."