Posted on 03/27/2006 6:35:42 PM PST by Flavius
BERLIN (Reuters) - Military strikes against Iran's nuclear sites would not destroy the Islamic republic's uranium enrichment activities, which could be easily moved and restarted, a senior Iranian official said on Monday.
"You know very well ... we can enrich uranium anywhere in the country, with a vast country of more than 1 million 600 square kilometers," said Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
"Enrichment can be done anywhere in Iran," he told a panel discussion on the possible use of military force to destroy what the West fears is Iran's atomic bomb program.
Soltaniyeh said that after Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear power plant at Osirak in 1981, then Iraqi-leader Saddam Hussein bombed Iran's Bushehr plant.
The Security Council then passed a resolution condemning the attacks and making it illegal for countries to strike nuclear facilities.
But Soltaniyeh said those U.N. documents were "just pieces of paper" today to the United States and Israel.
Soltaniyeh said Iran was hiding nothing from the world and that all of its nuclear fuel facilities were known to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. But he hinted that threats of possible military action against Tehran could change that.
"Any threat or potential threat will create a very complicated situation," he said, adding that Iran would never give up its enrichment program.
A retired U.S. Air Force colonel and well-known war gaming expert told the conference the United States was under increasing pressure to use military force to destroy Iran's atomic sites and would make a decision on this option soon.
Iran has completed a 164-machine "cascade" of centrifuges to enrich uranium at its Natanz plant and is expected to begin testing it soon, diplomats in Vienna say. Operating such a cascade would not enable it to fuel any atomic weapons but would enable Iran to master the difficult art of uranium enrichment.
"I think we may be looking at a (U.S.) decision in six to nine months," said Sam Gardiner, a military strategy expert who has taught at the U.S. Army's National War College.
I say before the November elections there will be a serious decision made in the United States," he said.
Gardiner said that while Washington supported European and Russian efforts to use diplomacy to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program, U.S. officials were skeptical about the efficacy of sanctions or other diplomatic weapons.
Washington also believes the U.N. Security Council will fail to agree on a course of action against Tehran, he said.
Tehran insists its nuclear program is aimed solely at the peaceful generation of electricity. However, it hid its uranium enrichment program, which could produce fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons, from U.N. inspectors for nearly two decades.
Gardiner said a U.S. operation aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear facilities would take less than a week and would not use any of the forces currently stationed in Iraq.
"This is an operation that would not take more than five evenings to do," he said, adding that it would probably use Stealth bombers to bomb the facilities.
But Gardiner said all his war-gaming and analysis had led him to the conclusion that Ambassador Soltaniyeh was right and the military solution would not destroy Iran's nuclear program as the know-how would remain.
"I don't think U.S. policymakers understand that the military option won't work," he said, adding that continued diplomacy was the only way to resolve the issue.
Vote YES on our proposal to convert Iranian nuclear sites into open pit copper mines.
A B-61-11 bomb will take out just about any bunker no matter how well it is built.
bttt
These statements from Iran that their nuclear sites are untouchable by the US military are pure disinformational BS. We can take out any site once we know where it is, and we and our allies have great capabilities at locating these sites. This statement makes me laugh: "I don't think U.S. policymakers understand that the military option won't work." Hah, hah, hah...LOL. I think Iranian policymakers don't understand the power and extent of our military capabilites, and of course they have no knowledge of our extensive classified weapons systems designed to handle a crisis just like this one.
It is time to abolish the UN. Iran says they just want electricity and at the same time that we cannot destroy their nuclear enrichment program. Does anyone in the whole world not think that they are going after the bomb, and that China and Russia are helping them and covering for them at the UN? We should provide nuclear weapons to Taiwan as retaliation for the Chicom helping all OUR enemies.
I guess this guy has never seen saturation ground penetrating nuclear bombing
Taiwan probably already has them and they are aimed at the Three Gorges Dam and Beijing.
But in an emergency we have more than enough air power, special forces troops, Rangers, and Marines to go into Iran and break things and then leave. These Iranian officials don't know what they're getting themselves into here.
I mean why do the Iranians think we still have 125,000 troops in Iraq? They're not all in there to break up fights between Iraqi militias. They're in Iraq to stop an Iranian invasion of Iraq and to take out Iranian nuclear sites if necessary.
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