Bush Blinks or Is the Ante Being Upped?

[babylonsister]

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2953/Bush_Blinks_or_Is_the_Ante_Being_Upped

Bush Blinks or Is the Ante Being Upped?
Anti-Iran/Syria Group Modeled on Earlier Anti-Iraq Unit Shut Down
By ROBERT Y. PELTON Posted 7 hr. 38 min. ago


The U.S. State Department has announced that it is shutting down the the Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group it created in March 2006.

The purpose of the group was to damage Iran's economy by pressuring banks to cut credit and limiting their military capability by opposing the sale of military equipment to Tehran's army and supporters.

This comes at a time when rhetoric and actions from Iran has become more strident and forceful. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has pressed forward with both his nuclear enrichment plan, anti-west rhetoric and continuing dismissal of the U.S. intentions in the region.

The shutdown was explained as being part of a reorganization but the Boston Globe reports that;

A senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said the group was shut down because of a widespread public perception that it was designed to enact regime change. State Department officials have said the focus of the Iran-Syria group was persuading the two regimes to change their behavior, not toppling them.

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[acmavm]

1. With all that fire power in the gulf I think that the plan has changed from

influencing anybody to trying to intimidate them with macho and fire power.