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Steht ein Angriff auf Iran bevor?

Die Schreckensmeldungen und Alarmsignale häufen sich: Guardian: "US able to strike in the spring"

Am Sonntagabend (11.02.) spielte Fraktionsvorsitzender Peter Struck die Gefahr eines Kriegs herunter. In der ZDF-Sendung "Berlin direkt" mochte er sich nicht vorstellen, dass die USA einen Krieg gegen Iran im Auge hätten. Erstens seien sie mit dem Irak und in Afghanistan zu sehr beschäftigt und zweitens würden sie gegen den Willen der Europäer nicht zu den Waffen greifen.
Originalton Struck:
Ich kann mir nicht ernsthaft vorstellen, dass George W. Bush bestrebt ist, den Iran militärisch anzugreifen. Das wird er von seinen Kapazitäten her kaum können, denn im Irak sind die Vereinigten Staaten stark gebunden. Zum anderen ist es auch nicht so, dass Iran leicht zu besiegen wäre, wenn man deren Nuklearanlagen zerstören will. Außerdem spielt man dann mit dem Feuer. Es geht um militärische Diskussionen, die eigentlich zurückstehen müssten, gegenüber den Debatten der Diplomaten. (...)
(...) Ich glaube nicht ernsthaft, dass Bush jetzt eine militärische Option gegen den Iran erwägt. Die Europäer werden ihn auch davon abhalten können. Das glaube ich schon, denn Frau Rice ist jetzt mit Frank-Walter Steinmeier im engen Dialog über diese Fragen.

Entwarnung also? Schön wär's, doch die Tatsachen sprechen gegen eine Entspannung im Atomstreit mit dem Iran. Vor gut einer Woche referierte der österreichische Konfliktforscher Georg Schöfbänker anlässlich der STOP-Konferenz (State of the peace) in Schlaining (Burgenland) über die Kriegsvorbereitungen gegen den Iran und führte jede Menge harte Fakten ins Feld. Am 10. Februar schickte er den Teilnehmern per e-mail einen Artikel aus dem britischen "Guardian" vom selben Tag, worin seine eigenen Befürchtungen bestätigt wurden. Schöfbänker schreibt:

Dear colleagues,
expect the worst and war against Iran perhaps within the next six weeks. As I said in Schlaining last week, most of my arguments are repeated & reflected here in this Guardian article as of today. They have got the message. It remains to been seen how long it will take the political class in Europe to understand whats going on.
The NYT ran today a big story by Michael Gordon "Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says". Therefore there is an independent casus belli beside all the nuclear stuff. I expect in the weeks to come new so called "intelligence" and perhaps new "Iranian defectors" with exclusive stories in the London's Sunday Times.
Larijani is tomorrow at Munich's conference at 10:30 am. Tune in, there should be a life-podcast. And this stuff is not only war-rumors or war-gossip from Washington DC. A lot of people there tell me it's extremly dangerous and hot.
Kind regards
Georg Schöfbänker

Ali Laridschani, Sekretär des Obersten Sicherheitsrates Irans und Chefunterhändler bei den Atomgesprächen, hat seine Rede in München heute gehalten. Es war eine moderate Rede, in welcher der iranische Standpunkt auf das Recht einer zivilen Nutzung der Kernenergie bekräftigt und zugleich Angebote gemacht wurden, die Urananreicherung von einem Konsortium unter strenger Kontrolle der IAEO durchführen zu lassen. (Die Rede haben wir hier dokumentiert: "In Irans Sicherheitsdoktrin ist kein Platz für atomare und chemische Waffen".) Der Iran bietet Verhandlungen an - ohne Vorbedingungen, versteht sich. Und genau dies ist der Punkt, an dem Irans Gegner, die USA und die EU, über ihren Schatten springen und zu Verhandlungen zurückkehren müssten, die auf jegliche Vorbedingungen verzichten. Im Augenblick sieht es allerdings nicht so aus, als wollte die EU diese Gelegenheit ergreifen. Bundeskanzlerin Merkel hat - ebenfalls auf der Münchner "Sicherheitskonferenz" deutlich gemacht, dass sie keinen Millimeter von dem bisherigen Standpunkt abweichen wolle: "Wir haben dem Iran ein Kooperationsangebot gemacht." Basta! (Hier geht es zur Rede von Angela Merkel: "Ein transatlantisches Bündnis ist besser, als wenn der Atlantik uns trennt".) Hoffentlich muss ihre Rede nicht bald so gelesen werden: "Lieber mit den USA in den Krieg als wieder abseits stehen".

Im Folgenden dokumentieren wir den erwähnten Artikel aus dem "Guardian". Bei dem mehrmals erwähnten AEI handelt es sich um das "American Enterprise Institute", ein neokonservativer Think Tank mit großem Einfluss auf die Bush-Cheney-Administration.

Pst

Target Iran: US able to strike in the spring

Despite denials, Pentagon plans for possible attack on nuclear sites are well advanced by Ewen MacAskill, Washington *

US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington.

The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office.

Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, are urging Mr Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is the vice-president, Dick Cheney. The state department and the Pentagon are opposed, as are Democratic congressmen and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. The Bush administration insists the military build-up is not offensive but aimed at containing Iran and forcing it to make diplomatic concessions. The aim is to persuade Tehran to curb its suspect nuclear weapons programme and abandon ambitions for regional expansion.

Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary, said yesterday: "I don't know how many times the president, secretary [of state Condoleezza] Rice and I have had to repeat that we have no intention of attacking Iran."

But Vincent Cannistraro, a Washington-based intelligence analyst, shared the sources' assessment that Pentagon planning was well under way. "Planning is going on, in spite of public disavowals by Gates. Targets have been selected. For a bombing campaign against nuclear sites, it is quite advanced. The military assets to carry this out are being put in place."

He added: "We are planning for war. It is incredibly dangerous."

Deployment

Mr Cannistraro, who worked for the CIA and the National Security Council, stressed that no decision had been made.

Last month Mr Bush ordered a second battle group led by the aircraft carrier USS John Stennis to the Gulf in support of the USS Eisenhower. The USS Stennis is due to arrive within the next 10 days. Extra US Patriot missiles have been sent to the region, as well as more minesweepers, in anticipation of Iranian retaliatory action.

In another sign that preparations are under way, Mr Bush has ordered oil reserves to be stockpiled.

The danger is that the build-up could spark an accidental war. Iranian officials said on Thursday that they had tested missiles capable of hitting warships in the Gulf.

Colonel Sam Gardiner, a former air force officer who has carried out war games with Iran as the target, supported the view that planning for an air strike was under way: "Gates said there is no planning for war. We know this is not true. He possibly meant there is no plan for an immediate strike. It was sloppy wording.

"All the moves being made over the last few weeks are consistent with what you would do if you were going to do an air strike. We have to throw away the notion the US could not do it because it is too tied up in Iraq. It is an air operation."

One of the main driving forces behind war, apart from the vice-president's office, is the AEI, headquarters of the neo-conservatives. A member of the AEI coined the slogan "axis of evil" that originally lumped Iran in with Iraq and North Korea. Its influence on the White House appeared to be in decline last year amid endless bad news from Iraq, for which it had been a cheerleader. But in the face of opposition from Congress, the Pentagon and state department, Mr Bush opted last month for an AEI plan to send more troops to Iraq. Will he support calls from within the AEI for a strike on Iran?

Josh Muravchik, a Middle East specialist at the AEI, is among its most vocal supporters of such a strike.

"I do not think anyone in the US is talking about invasion. We have been chastened by the experience of Iraq, even a hawk like myself." But an air strike was another matter. The danger of Iran having a nuclear weapon "is not just that it might use it out of the blue but as a shield to do all sorts of mischief. I do not believe there will be any way to stop this happening other than physical force."

Mr Bush is part of the American generation that refuses to forgive Iran for the 1979-81 hostage crisis. He leaves office in January 2009 and has said repeatedly that he does not want a legacy in which Iran has achieved superpower status in the region and come close to acquiring a nuclear weapon capability. The logic of this is that if diplomatic efforts fail to persuade Iran to stop uranium enrichment then the only alternative left is to turn to the military.

Mr Muravchik is intent on holding Mr Bush to his word: "The Bush administration have said they would not allow Iran nuclear weapons. That is either bullshit or they mean it as a clear code: we will do it if we have to. I would rather believe it is not hot air."

Other neo-cons elsewhere in Washington are opposed to an air strike but advocate a different form of military action, supporting Iranian armed groups, in particular the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), even though the state department has branded it a terrorist organisation.

Raymond Tanter, founder of the Iran Policy Committee, which includes former officials from the White House, state department and intelligence services, is a leading advocate of support for the MEK. If it comes to an air strike, he favours bunker-busting bombs. "I believe the only way to get at the deeply buried sites at Natanz and Arak is probably to use bunker-buster bombs, some of which are nuclear tipped. I do not believe the US would do that but it has sold them to Israel."

Opposition support

Another neo-conservative, Meyrav Wurmser, director of the centre for Middle East policy at the Hudson Institute, also favours supporting Iranian opposition groups. She is disappointed with the response of the Bush administration so far to Iran and said that if the aim of US policy after 9/11 was to make the Middle East safer for the US, it was not working because the administration had stopped at Iraq. "There is not enough political will for a strike. There seems to be various notions of what the policy should be."

In spite of the president's veto on negotiation with Tehran, the state department has been involved since 2003 in back-channel approaches and meetings involving Iranian officials and members of the Bush administration or individuals close to it. But when last year the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sent a letter as an overture, the state department dismissed it within hours of its arrival.

Support for negotiations comes from centrist and liberal thinktanks. Afshin Molavi, a fellow of the New America Foundation, said: "To argue diplomacy has not worked is false because it has not been tried. Post-90s and through to today, when Iran has been ready to dance, the US refused, and when the US has been ready to dance, Iran has refused. We are at a stage where Iran is ready to walk across the dance floor and the US is looking away."

He is worried about "a miscalculation that leads to an accidental war".

The catalyst could be Iraq. The Pentagon said yesterday that it had evidence - serial numbers of projectiles as well as explosives - of Iraqi militants' weapons that had come from Iran. In a further sign of the increased tension, Iran's main nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, cancelled a visit to Munich for what would have been the first formal meeting with his western counterparts since last year.

If it does come to war, Mr Muravchik said Iran would retaliate, but that on balance it would be worth it to stop a country that he said had "Death to America" as its official slogan.

"We have to gird our loins and prepare to absorb the counter-shock," he said.



From The Guardian, February 10, 2007


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