Terror Attacks, U.S.-Israeli War Games Raise the Prospects for War with Iran
By Tom Burghardt
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28660
Global Research, January 14, 2012
Amid
rising tensions over bogus Western claims that Iran plans to build
nuclear weapons, upcoming American war games with Israel have the
potential of escalating into a deadly confrontation.
A miscalculation, or deliberate
provocation by the West designed to maneuver the Iranians into "firing
the first shot," could have disastrous consequences far beyond the
confines of the Persian Gulf.
That provocation wasn't long in coming.
Despite an agreement reached by Iran with
the P 5+1 group of nations (Britain, China, France, Russia, the United
States and Germany), to restart talks in Turkey over the nuclear issue,
the CIA-Mossad-MEK terror campaign took a dark turn this week; a sign
that the imperialist powers, spearheaded by the United States, aim to
scupper negotiations even before they start.
On Tuesday, an Iranian university
professor, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, a chemistry expert and director of
the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, was murdered after two
assailants on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs to his car.
Analyst Richard Silverstein wrote on the Tikun Olam
web site Wednesday that "my own confidential Israeli source confirms
today's murder was the work of the Mossad and MEK, as have been a number
of previous operations I've reported here."
Silverstein averred that "the method
recalls another series of assassinations that occurred of Fereidoun
Abbassi Davani (who was seriously wounded) and his colleague Majid
Shahriari (who was killed). Today's killing occurred two years to the
day after the assassination of another scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi."
According to Fars News Agency, the blasts which killed Roshan "also wounded two other Iranian nationals in Seyed Khandan neighborhood in Northern Tehran."
The scientist''s driver, Reza Qashqavi,
who was severely injured in the blast, "died of his wounds in Resalat
Hospital a few hours later," Fars reported.
What makes Roshan's murder especially
troubling is that according to political analyst Seyyed Mohamed Marandi,
the "IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] officials had met him
[Ahmadi Roshan] earlier."
Marandi charged that all of the Iranian
scientists who had been targeted and then subsequently murdered in
terrorist attacks "have had their names given by the IAEA to third
parties," Press TV reported.
"It is obvious that Western intelligence
agencies are carrying out these attacks, or if the Israelis are carrying
them out, it is with the knowledge of the Europeans and Americans.
Because these agencies are very closely aligned to one another, they
cooperate extensively, they exchange information," Marandi said.
While no one has claimed authorship of the terrorist outrage, the Associated Press
reported that IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz testified in closed
session to the Israeli Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
that America's proxy, Israel, was engaged in sabotaging Iran's nuclear
program through a series of "unnatural acts."
"2012 is expected to be a critical year for Iran," Gantz told the committee, citing "the confluence of efforts to advance the nuclear program, internal leadership changes, continued international pressure and things that happen to it unnaturally."
Roshan was the fourth scientist killed in a
series of assassinations since January 2010 and follows a series of
attacks on defense and nuclear facilities.
In early November, a massive bomb blast at
the sprawling Bid Ganeh missile base 25 miles west of Tehran killed
upwards of 30 members of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
including Major General Hassan Moqqadam, a senior leader of Iran's
missile program.
Later that month, a huge explosion was
reported at Iran's uranium conversion facility in Isfahan. Though
Iranian officials denied an attack took place, The Times reported that "satellite imagery ... clearly showed billowing smoke and destruction."
U.S. officials, as is their wont, responded in typical fashion--they blamed the victims.
State Department spokesperson Victoria
Nuland said she had "no information one way or the other" about the
scientist's murder, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced
Iran for their "provocative rhetoric" and issued a categorical denial
that the U.S. was organizing terrorism inside the Islamic Republic.
However, in an interview with the Hebrew-language Ma'ariv
daily, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said that "Washington is
preparing to undertake any measure to thwart Iran's nuclear program," Xinhua reported.
"We've said and I say again that all
options are open ... President (Barack) Obama clearly and consistently
says that he will do everything and resort to all necessary means to
prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons, and he means every word,"
Shapiro said.
Shapiro's statement, if not quite an open
admission, is a sign of Washington's boundless hypocrisy as it
supposedly wages a so-called "War on Terror" while organizing terrorist
attacks on governments it has targeted for regime change.
Iran, and China, Strike a Defiant Note
With a new round of economic sanctions
targeting Iran's ability to sell its oil on international markets signed
into law by President Obama last week, and with the European Union
threatening to do the same, it was unlikely that the Iranian government,
or their principle trading partner, would sit idly by and allow the
West to damage their respective economies.
Although The Washington Post
reported Tuesday that "a senior U.S. intelligence official" said that
"the goal of U.S. and other sanctions against Iran is regime collapse,"
the quote was quickly yanked from their web site.
The Post claimed the earlier
account was "incorrectly reported" and that "an updated version
clarifies the official's remarks," a fallacious climb-down that revealed
far more than Washington intended to say the least!
The European Union announced that a
meeting of foreign ministers would be held January 23, a week earlier
than originally planned, to finalize an agreement on a comprehensive oil
embargo.
While the EU and some Asian oil-buying
nations are caving-in to Washington's demands, America's geopolitical
rival and largest creditor, China, has rejected calls to put the squeeze
on Tehran.
With U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Beijing this week, The Washington Post
reported that the former Kissinger Associates henchman in Obama's
cabinet "is expected to press China's leaders to reduce the country's
oil imports from Iran."
He is unlikely to find a receptive ear, however.
China's vice foreign minister responsible
for U.S. relations, Cui Tiankai, said on Monday that "the normal trade
relations and energy cooperation between China and Iran have nothing to
do with the nuclear issue. We should not mix issues of different
natures, and China's legitimate concerns and demands should be
respected."
Having blasted the new sanctions regime
imposed last week, China, the third largest buyer of Iranian crude, said
new restrictions would not affect business in the least.
The Associated Press
reported that "about 11 percent of China's oil imports in 2011 came
from Iran, or about 560,000 barrels per day, a flow that increased in
the latter half of the year, according to oil industry analysts Argus
Media."
"The daily average for November was 617,000 barrels," AP
reported, "close to a third of Iran's total oil exports of 2.2 million
barrels a day, Argus said," a sign that China is hardly intimidated by
U.S. threats.
Rejecting U.S. and European claims that
normal business relations with the Islamic Republic provided financial
support for its nuclear program, Cui declared that "argument does not
hold water."
"According to this logic," the vice
minister said, "if the Iranians have enough money to feed their
population, then they have the ability to develop nuclear programs," Cui
told reporters. "If that is the case, should we also deny Iran the
opportunity to feed its population?"
Cui's pointed remark was an obvious jab at
the U.S. sanctions regime which targeted Iraq for more than a decade
prior to the 2003 invasion. Sanctions, which former UN official Dennis
Halliday called "genocide" back in 1999, were estimated to have caused
the death of upwards of 1.7. million people, including some 500,000
children, a "price" which former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
said was "worth it."
Undeterred by American threats, Press TV
disclosed Sunday that "a senior Iranian lawmaker says the aim of the
upcoming naval drills by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is
to prepare for the potential closure of the strategic Hormuz Strait."
Iranian naval officials announced January 5
that they "would be holding a major military maneuver in the Persian
Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in February."
"IRGC's Naval Commander Rear Admiral Ali
Fadavi said the drills, the seventh in a series of military exercises
dubbed the Great Prophet, will be different compared to previous naval
maneuvers held by the IRGC," Press TV reported.
Pointedly, the deputy head of the
parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Esmail
Kowsari, said that "the military maneuver has been designed to prepare
the armed forces for receiving the order to shut down the strait within
the shortest time possible."
The semiofficial Iranian news outlet also reported
Sunday that the "Commander of Iran's Ground Forces Brigadier General
Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan announces plans to hold a massive military
maneuver in the near future."
"In line with the global developments and their own interests," Pourdastan told Press TV, "Western countries are, today, using soft war [tactics] as the core of their strategy and it is [only] natural for us to have a defense [tactic] when the enemy starts a war."
On Monday, Fars News Agency
reported that IRGC Commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari,
reiterated his earlier warning that "any enemy move, even the slightest
aggressions, against the Islamic Republic would be reciprocated with a
destructive response and will endanger the interests of the aggressor
all around the world."
Mounting U.S.-NATO Threats
Iran's announcement that they will hold new naval exercises, followed a report by The Daily Telegraph
that the UK will deploy "the HMS Daring, a Type 45 destroyer," and this
"will send a significant message to the Iranians because of the
firepower and world-beating technology carried by the warship."
In November, The Guardian disclosed that "Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran."
In a controlled leak, Ministry of Defence officials told The Guardian
that "military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy
ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the
coming months as part of what would be an air and sea campaign."
During the 2003 U.S. invasion and
occupation of Iraq, Diego Garcia was used by the the U.S. Air Force as a
launch pad for B-2 stealth bombers during the initial phase of
Washington's "shock and awe" campaign over Baghdad.
It now appears those contingency plans
have moved off the drawing board with the deployment of the HMS Daring
towards the Persian Gulf.
The Telegraph disclosed that the
ship "has been fitted with new technology that will give it the ability
to shoot down any missile in Iran's armoury. The £1 billion destroyer,
which will leave Portsmouth next Wednesday, also carries the world's
most sophisticated naval radar, capable of tracking multiple incoming
threats from missiles to fighter jets."
Defense Secretary Philip Hammond warned Iran that "any blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be 'illegal and unsuccessful'."
According to the Telegraph, naval
sources have said that "more British ships could be sent to the Gulf if
required. The second Type 45, HMS Dauntless, will also be available to
sail at short notice."
As Global Research
reported in December, the United States has significantly increased
military aid to Israel in preparation for an all-out war with Iran and
that "the Pentagon dispatched some 100 military personnel to Israel from
US European Command (EUCOM) to assist Israel in setting up a new
sophisticated X-band early warning radar system as part of a new and
integrated air defense system."
Although "casually heralded as 'military
aid,'" Michel Chossudovsky wrote, "the project consisted in
strengthening the integration of Israel's air defense system into that
of the US, with the Pentagon rather than Israel calling the shots."
In a new development, Russia Today
reported last week that "thousands of American troops are being
deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the
latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking
Tehran."
"Under the Austere Challenge 12 drill scheduled for an undisclosed time during the next few weeks," RT disclosed, "the Israeli military will together with America host the largest-ever joint missile drill by the two countries."
An anonymous Israeli official told the Associated Press
"the drill would test multiple Israeli and U.S. air defense systems
against incoming missiles and rockets. Israel has deployed the 'Arrow'
system, jointly developed and funded with the U.S., designed to
intercept Iranian missiles in the stratosphere, far from Israel."
While U.S. and Israeli officials have called the drills "routine," RT
reported that "following the installation of American troops near
Iran's neighboring Strait of Hormuz and the reinforcing of nearby
nations with US weapons, Tehran authorities are considering this not a
test but the start of something much bigger."
Iranian fears are fully justified.
With the United States and NATO ringing
Iran with military bases and with the U.S. beefing-up arm sales to its
regional allies, including recently announced plans to sell some $30
billion of advanced F-15SA war planes to Saudi Arabia and "bunker
buster" bombs to the UAE, the stage is set for a confrontation.
In this context, the murder of an Iranian
scientist just as a new round of talks were announced, is a clear sign
that Washington is hell-bent on imposing its control over the Persian
Gulf--through aggressive war--as part of long-standing plans to ensure
imperial hegemony over the energy-rich regions of of Central Asia and
the Middle East.
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research,, he is a Contributing Editor with Cyrano's Journal Today. His articles can be read on Dissident Voice, Pacific Free Press, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press and has contributed to the new book from Global Research, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century.
