Iran, the "silent war," heats up

But in addition to the hot wars, there is a silent war being waged against Iran. So far most of the violence has been limited to covert operations, assassinations, and other non-public forms of war. But U.S. imperialism has many tools in its deadly arsenal that do not always take the form of open warfare. Many of these tools have been and are being used against Iran.

So far these have involved a considerable amount of U.S. propaganda, both to isolate the Iranian regime and to prepare the political ground for possible overt warfare. The U.S. has also used diplomacy for the same two reasons, with the additional hope that the Iranian government may actually capitulate and start to do the bidding of the U.S., at least in regard to certain U.S. goals.

Economic sanctions have also played a considerable role in putting pressure on Iran. Most of these weapons have been used in conjunction with the U.S. claim that Iran is using its program to develop nuclear energy as a cover to actually develop nuclear weapons. The U.S. is trying to convince the world that Iran is a dangerous state that can in no way be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons and must be stopped at all costs from doing so.

Therefore it should come as no surprise to learn that U.S. intelligence agencies are now claiming that Iran has enough nuclear fuel to create a nuclear weapon should it choose to do so.

On September 9^th Glyn Davies, the U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), used these reports to claim Iran has “possible breakout capacity” if the Iranians chose to enrich its uranium stockpile. Referring to Iran's uranium enrichment program, Davies said ''This ongoing enrichment activity ... moves Iran closer to a dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity". Taken in connection with Iran's refusal to engage with the IAEA regarding its past nuclear warhead-related work, we have serious concerns that Iran is deliberately attempting, at a minimum, to preserve a nuclear weapons option.''An IAEA report claims Iran now has a minimum of 3,153 pounds of low-enriched uranium hexafluoride according to Davies.

Twin Weapons of Diplomacy and Sanctions

This latest charge is being leveled at this time to strengthen the U.S. weapons of diplomacy and sanctions, but it could just as easily strengthen the U.S. ability to go to war against Iran should Obama choose to do so. Obama has been pressuring Iran to enter into negotiations regarding its nuclear enrichment program. Obama has given Iran until the end of this month to respond to an offer of “nuclear talks” with the “five plus one” group of permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany. But this offer is similar to the offer made in the Godfather movie – an offer that can not be refused. The U.S. has made it quite clear that if the Iranians do not capitulate to U.S. demands, the U.S. will then move to further pressure U.S. allies to impose more severe sanctions against Iran later this month.

Among the additional sanctions that the U.S. is considering is the cutoff of gasoline to Iran. Even though Iran produces much oil, its ability to refine this into enough gasoline to be self-sustaining does not currently exist and Iran must import gasoline to run the country. Cutting off its gasoline supply would cripple the economy and in effect be an act of war. Iran has previously defied three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006. Iran denies accusations that it is using its nuclear program to develop nuclear arms. Tehran has refused to stop its enrichment of uranium, declaring it has such a right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Iran though is certainly aware that it is being pressured to “negotiate.” On September 7^th Iranian President Ahmadinejad stated, “We will continue our work in the framework of global regulations and in close cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.” He further claimed he was willing to engage in “fair and logical” discussions to “solve global challenges” with the five plus one group. He said he expected a “change of approach” from them and went on to say “the nuclear issue is over” from Iran's perspective.

On September 9^th, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki gave Iran's proposals for new negotiations to the six nation group's ambassadors. Ali Asghar Soltanieh, an Iranian envoy to the IAEA, stated to reporters that, ''Regarding Iran's nuclear issue, if there are any questions or ambiguities, we are well prepared to remove ambiguities in the context of the IAEA.''

In an earlier critical statement to the IAEA board, Soltanieh said it "should be recalled that the agency has been faced with continuous false and forged allegations" by the U.S.

He also stated, "I remind that the international community is carefully monitoring the attitude and conducts of the new U.S. administration. The world is observing curiously whether or not this administration follows the same trend and policy as the Bush administration, pursuing hostile political confrontation, using fabricated baseless allegations ..."He did not have to remind anyone that the U.S. used the elimination of non-existent WMDs to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Apparently as a result of past embarrassment to the U.S. intelligence community, according to the New York Times, the latest intelligence reports state that Iran has chosen not to take the critical last steps to make a nuclear weapon. This is consistent with past intelligence reports that Iran halted attempts to design a nuke back in 2003. This was the view of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIA) given to President Bush in 2007. That NIA was allegedly based on information collected by U.S. intelligence agencies from Iran's military computer networks. But because this latest “intelligence” claims Iran has enough nuclear fuel to create a weapon if it chose to do so at some point, it strengthens the hand of those who advocate military action against Iran.

Aside from hawks within the U.S. government, this included the Israelis. Various officials within the Israeli government have wanted to “take out” Iran's nuclear capability for quite some time.Because they see Iran as an “existential threat” to Israel, they have stated that if the U.S. does not deal with the problem, they will.This is not an idle threat: Israeli forces have struck alleged nuclear targets in Iraq and Syria before. The attack against Iraq occurred in 1981, but the one against Syria occurred in 2007.

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