Gates lays out non-military options to deal with Iran

[oberliner]

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Iran’s secret underground nuclear facility revealed this week is illegal and likely intended for military purposes.

“I think that certainly the intelligence people have no doubt that … this is an illicit nuclear facility, if only … because the Iranians kept it a secret,” Gates said in an interview broadcast on CNN’s State of the Union.

“If they wanted it for peaceful nuclear purposes, there's no reason to put it so deep underground, no reason to be deceptive about it, keep it a … secret for a protracted period of time,” Gates said.

Gates refused to rule out a military strike by the United States and its allies, but called for diplomatic efforts including sanctions first.

“The reality is, there is no military option that does anything more than buy time,” Gates said. “The estimates are one to three years or so. And the only way you end up not having a nuclear-capable Iran is for the Iranian government to decide that their security is diminished by having those weapons, as opposed to strengthened.

“And so I think, as I say, while you don't take options off the table, I think there's still room left for diplomacy.”

Gate said “a variety of options” remained available, including sanctions on banking and equipment and technology for Iran’s oil and gas industry.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/27/gates-lays-out-non-military-options-to-deal-with-iran/

[babylonsister]

1. What a difference a new admin makes. nt

[invictus]

5. Obama is still spewing the same AIPAC-authored lies.There is no proof that Iran is developing a bomb

[Cha]

10. No, he's not but you're spewing clueless

dissing.

[oberliner]

6. Hopefully diplomacy will win the day here

Obama has a lot more capital with world leaders than his predecessor, that's for sure.

[babylonsister]

8. That's the major difference, and my hope as well. We need to find

solutions other than fighting all the time.

[Cha]

11. Yes, there is a 180 degree

difference. We're dealing in reality now.

[ipaint]

2. He said the same thing in 1992

"In that same year, Robert Gates, then director of the CIA, asked, "Is a problem today?" He answered, "Probably not. But three, four, five years from now it could be a serious problem." Three years later, a senior Israeli official declared: "If Iran is not interrupted in this program by some foreign power, it will have the device in more or less five years."
Officially, both the United States and Israel now agree that Iran is unlikely to be able to produce a bomb until about 2013 or 2014—the same five-year window that was being predicted seventeen years ago in 1992."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-23/how-to-keep-iran-in-check-without-war/full/



Keeping Iran honest
Iran's secret nuclear plant will spark a new round of IAEA inspections and lead to a period of even greater transparency

Scott Ritter

It was very much a moment of high drama. Barack Obama, fresh from his history-making stint hosting the UN security council, took a break from his duties at the G20 economic summit in Pittsburgh to announce the existence of a secret, undeclared nuclear facility in Iran which was inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear programme, underscoring the president's conclusion that "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow".

Obama, backed by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, threatened tough sanctions against Iran if it did not fully comply with its obligations concerning the international monitoring of its nuclear programme, which at the present time is being defined by the US, Britain and France as requiring an immediate suspension of all nuclear-enrichment activity.

The facility in question, said to be located on a secret Iranian military installation outside of the holy city of Qom and capable of housing up to 3,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium, had been monitored by the intelligence services of the US and other nations for some time. But it wasn't until Monday that the IAEA found out about its existence, based not on any intelligence "scoop" provided by the US, but rather Iran's own voluntary declaration. Iran's actions forced the hand of the US, leading to Obama's hurried press conference Friday morning.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/25/iran-secret-nuclear-plant-inspections

[invictus]

4. According to the Israeli lie-machine, Iran was supposed to have developed the nuclear bomb in 2000.

Now these liars are pushing their "prediction" to 2014. These jerks are no ally of America and are only interested in dragging America into yet another war that will destroy this country.

[oberliner]

9. Perhaps past sanctions have been effective?

Maybe that is the reason for the delay?

[invictus]

3. You neo-cons are full of shit and are trying to drag America into another war for Israel.

There is no proof that Iran's nuclear facility is (1) secret, considering Iran revealed it earlier than it was required to do so under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (2) illegal, since Iran has every right to develop nuclear energy or (3) intended for military purposes.

[iceman66]

7. Well . . .

The facility may very well be military, because the Iranian regime is about as honorable and trustworthy as the Bush administration, but all of the constant neocon threats over the past several years give them a pretty good excuse for putting it underground!