US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has blamed Iran for making efforts to build a nuclear bomb, saying it poses a threat to the country’s neighbors.
The United States is “very ready” to counter Iran should it make a move, the top US military officer added in Manama, Bahrain, home to a large US navy base, on Saturday.
“There are real threats to peace and stability here, and we’ve made no secrets of our concerns about Iran,” he went on to say.
“From my perspective I see Iran continuing on this path to develop nuclear weapons, and I believe that that development and achieving that goal would be very destabilizing to the region,” Mullen said.
Amid a standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, both Tel Aviv and Washington have repeatedly threatened Tehran with the “option” of a military strike, based on the allegation that Iran’s nuclear work may consist of a covert military agenda — an allegation Iran has repeatedly denied.
Iran is carrying out its uranium enrichment activities under full surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly rejected any effort to develop a nuclear bomb.
The United States prevents Israel, which possesses hundreds of nuclear warheads, from joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) through its full support for Israel while it constantly talks about what it calls Iran’s threat in order to maintain its military base in Bahrain.
The US and four Arab countries of the Persian Gulf have signed a huge arms accord based on which Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are scheduled to buy 123 billion dollars worth of arms from the US in the next four years.
The latest threat of military action against Iran was invoked in November by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who urged Washington to “destroy” the Islamic Republic through military action.
“Not to just neutralize their nuclear program, but to sink their navy, destroy their air force and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard, in other words neuter that regime,” Graham said.
Mullen himself had also claimed in the past that he was ready to start a war if he was convinced it would keep Iran from making a “bomb.”
This is while Iran says its nuclear program is completely peaceful and within the framework of the NPT, to which it is a signatory.
The IAEA has, in its many reports, also verified the non-diversion of nuclear material toward military objectives.
In August, Iran complained to the UN Security Council and the General Assembly about US military threats over the country’s nuclear program and based on “totally false” grounds, vowing a response to any such strikes.
Mullen, however, added that he supports the policy of imposing sanctions against Iran to pressure it into stopping its nuclear program, while continuing talks.
Iranian officials have warned that any act of aggression by the US and Israel against Iran’s nuclear facilities would be firmly responded to and could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.
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via PressTV – Mullen: US very ready to attack Iran.
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