Are on the table . does that include the possibility of nuclear strike is that something that your administration has plans about ?"US president George W. Bush replied" all options are on the table.
Iran's nuclear program
main article : program of Iran
Wiki source has original text related to this article : nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty .
Since 2003 the United States has alleged that Iran has a program to develop nuclear weapons . Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is aimed only at generating electricity. The United States ' official position on Iran is that "a nuclear –armed Iran Is not acceptable " and that "all options "- including the unilateral use of force and first –strike nuclear weapons _ are "on the table" however they have denied that the United States is preparing for an imminent strike. This came while three European countries the United Kingdom (UK) France and Germany (the "EU-3") attempted to negotiated to negotiate a cessation of nuclear enrichment activities y Iran which America claims are aimed at producing nuclear weapons.
In June 2005 the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohamed El Baradei should either toughen his stance on Iran or fail to be chosen for a third term as IAEA head . Both the United States and Iran are parties to the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty(NPT). The United States(and other official nuclear weaponsstates) were alleged during the May 2005 month _long meeting on the NPT to be in violation of the NPT through Article VI which requires them to disarm which as of 2006 they have not done while the IAEA has stated that Iran is in violation of a Safeguards Agreement related to the NPT due to insufficient reporting of nuclear material its processing and its use. Under Article IV the treaty gives non-nuclear states the right to develop civilian nuclear energy programs.
From 2003 to early 2006 tensions between the US and Iran have successively mounted even while International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of sensitive nuclear industry sites in Iran have continued in line with an Additional Protocol to the NPT which Iran voluntarily adhered to.
On March 8,2006,US and EU-3 representatives noted that Iran has enough unenriched uraniumhexafluoride gas to make up to ten atomic bombs if it were to be highly enriched and adding it was "time for the Security Council to act .The unenriched uranium cannot be used either in the Bushehr reactor which is a pressurized water reactor nor in atomic bombs unless it becomes enriched
The United States predicted a quick vote on a third resolution imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program as it begins to build a case against Iran's central bank for proliferation activities on February 25,2008.
The role of petroleum
Escalating tensions between the United states and Iran have been attributed to the evolving state of energy geopolitics , and the future of energy security for much of the Western world . This includes ultimate control over the Straits of Hormuz, through which tankers ferry chose to 40 percent of the world's daily oil needs.
An armed confrontation between the United States and Iran, and an Israeli into such a confiict , may embroil the entire region in a state of war , possibly leading to new nation –states carved along ethno –religious lines. This may ensure stable oil supplies in the future and prevent a hyperextension of the ongoing ethno-religious strife in Iraq.
Also Iran has announced plans to create a new International Oil futures exchange , possibly called the Iranian Oil Bourse , trading oil priced in euros and possibly other currencies , rather than dollars as used by other oil markets. Some fear that this would have significant negative impact on the strength of the US Dollar on international currency markets. The opening of the exchange had planned for March 20 ,2006. but has been delayed.
Bush's "wave of democracy"
In political speeches leading up to and following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. George W.Bush has claimed that his administration's goal in the invasion was to bring democracy to countries in the Middle East and to oppose islamofascism . The anti-Iraq War World Tribunal on Iraq and others have doubted the sincerity of this motive , pointing to a list of killed, threatened or kidnapped Iraqi academics systematic campaign against academia in Iraq during the US occupation of Iraq. Robert Dreyfuss, author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Isam , claims that the US actions in region have in fact supported , and are continuing to support , "islamofascism"
rather than oppose it .
Iran fears of attack by the US
Paul Pillar , former CIA official who led the preparation of all National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) on Iran from 2000 to 2005 in his role as ional intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia , told the InterPress Service that all of the NIEs on Iran during that period
"addressed the Iranian fears of U.S attack explicitly and related their desire for nuclear weapons to those fears " and stated "Iranian perceptions of threat , especially from the United states and Israel , were not the only factor , but were in our judgment part of what drove whatever effort they were making to build nuclear weapons."
Another former CIA official , Ellen Laipson , said that " the Iranian fear of an attack by the United states has long been 'a standard element ' in NIEs on Iran . In 2005 , the United States passed the Iran freedom and Support Act , which appropriated millions of dollars for human rights NGOs working in that country . Several politicians in both countries have claimed the use of force towards Iran .
Domestic politics in the US.
Main article : Opposition to war against Iran
Within the United States , the now-unpopular war in Iraq has taken a toll on the willingness of the American public to accept another war . A CBS poll taken in June 2006 showed that only 21 percent of Americans supported military action against Iran . Fifty-five percent favored diplomacy and 19 percent said Iran was not a threat to the United States.
Some groups have begun organizing sentiment in opposition to an attack on Iran . This pressure to rule out a military attack on Iran may have an impact on the actions that the United States government will be willing to take with regard to Iran.
Calls for diplomacy
In May 2007 . Iran's top diplomat Foreign Miniter Manouchehr Mottaki declared that Iran is "ready to talk " to the United States . There is significant work to be done before the United States will drop a 28 year old freeze on diplomatic relations , but the comments mark the furthest diplopmatic advance made by Iran in recent memory .
Military operations inside Iran
See also : People's Muj ahedin of iran# Alleged MEK Activity in Iran , Party for a free Life in Kurdistan , and Jundullah
Scott Ritter has stated that CIA-backed bombings had been undertaken in Iran by the Mujahideene-khalq (MEK or MKO), an opposition group listed by the United States Department of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization . In April 2006, The Raw Story cited an unnamed UN source "chose to " the United Nation Security Council stating that former MEK members had been used as aproxy by the US for "roughly a year" inside of Iranian territory . An intelligence source quoted by The Raw Story said that the former MEK members were mad to "swear an oath to Democracy and resign from the MEK" before being incorporated into US military units and retrained for their operations in Iran
Following the killing of 24 Iranian security forces in Iran in March 2006 by the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK), an opposition group closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is listed by the US . state Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization , Dennis Kucinich claimed in a letter to George W.Bush on April 18,2006, that PEJAK is being supported and coordinated by the US, since it is based in Iraq , which is under the de facto control of US military forces . In November 2006 , journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker
