Haaretz
Tevet 23, 5767
U.S. officials said Friday there
was no immediate plan to strike targets in Iran, but they also would not
rule out military action.
Their comments came after President
George W. Bush vowed in a prime-time
address to Americans to go after
Iranian terrorist networks feeding the insurgency in Iraq.
The U.S.
and Iran have been involved in a bitter standoff over Tehran's
nuclear
program, a clash that has intensified because the United States says Iran
helped provide roadside bombs that have killed American troops in Iraq.
Tensions inched upward another notch this week after five Iranians
were
detained by U.S.-led forces after a raid on an Iranian government
liaison
office in northern Iraq.
Bush's remarks Wednesday in a
prime-time speech announcing his plan to boost U.S. forces in Iraq,
prompted questions from members of Congress about whether the U.S. is
considering attacks on Iranian territory. Bush administration officials
have long refused to rule out any options against Iran but said military
action would be a last resort.
On Friday, Defense Secretary Robert
Gates and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the
Senate Armed Services Committee that while U.S. forces are trying to
prevent Iran and Syria from disrupting U.S. forces in Iraq, there were no
immediate plans for an attack.
"We believe that we can interrupt
these networks that are providing support through actions inside the
territory of Iraq, that there is no need to attack targets in Iran
itself," Gates told the panel, adding that he continues to believe that
"any kind of military action inside Iran itself, that would be a very last
resort."
Pace said special operations forces are continually
battling insurgents who are getting aid from Iran. "I think one of the
reasons you keep hearing about Iran is because we keep finding their stuff
in Iraq," Pace said.
Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the
Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to Bush on Thursday asking for
clarifications on the administration's stance toward attacking Iran.
Republican Sen. John Warner and Democrat Robert Byrd raised the
issue at a hearing Friday. "The president seems to have placed diplomacy
on the back-burner again," Byrd said.
In his speech Wednesday,
Bush chastised Iran and Syria for not blocking
terrorists at their
borders with Iraq. He specifically blamed Iran for
providing material
support for attacks on American troops. "We will disrupt the attacks on
our forces," Bush said. "We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran
and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing
advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."
On Friday,
White House spokesman Tony Snow called the suggestion that war
plans
were under way an "urban legend."
"What the president was talking
about is defending American forces within
Iraq, and also doing what we
can to disrupt networks that might be trying to convey weapons or fighters
into battle theaters within Iraq to kill Americans and Iraqis," Snow
said.
Bush authorized a series of raids against Iranians in
Iraq
An order from President Bush authorized a series of U.S.
raids against Iranians in Iraq as part of a broad military offensive,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.
Bush issued the
order several months ago, Rice told The New York Times as she prepared to
visit the Middle East. She said the president acted "after a period of
time in which we saw increasing activity" among Iranians in Iraq "and
increasing lethality in what they were producing."
Five Iranians
were detained by U.S.-led forces this week after a raid on an Iranian
government liaison office in northern Iraq because of information linking
the facility to the Revolutionary Guards and other Iranian elements who
are engaging in violent activities in Iraq. The move further frayed the
relations between the two countries.
Deputy State Department
spokesman Tom Casey said there was no truth to reports that Iran was
carrying out legitimate diplomatic activity at the site. "It did not have
the standing of a consulate nor did it have any other international
diplomatic standing to speak of," he said.
Casey's comments
contradict Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, who said Friday
that the Iranians were working in a "liaison office" in Irbil that had
government approval and was in the process of being approved as a
consulate.
The United States accuses Iran of helping provide
roadside bombs that have killed American troops in Iraq, and a bitter
standoff already exists over Tehran's nuclear program.