[Peace-discuss] US Hawk warns Iran threat must be eliminated

[patton paul]

 US Hawk Warns Iran Threat Must Be Eliminated
by Richard Norton-Taylor


An American official warned yesterday that the potential threat posed by
Iran's nuclear program had to be "eliminated" and predicted Tehran would
try to "throw sand" in the eyes of the world to avoid a confrontation at
the UN.

John Bolton, deputy under secretary of state for arms control, who is
regarded as the state department's chief hawk, was speaking to journalists
in London where he reaffirmed the Bush administration's notion of "rogue
states" which threatened US interests.


John Bolton
US Hawk Warns Iran Threat Must Be Eliminated
Top of the list were Iran and North Korea, he said. "There is awareness of
the threat posed by Iran and consensus that threat has to be eliminated,"
he said referring to the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr.

Iran "will try and throw sand in our eyes" mixing cooperation and
obfuscation "to conceal as much as they can, to delay and to avoid having
the issue referred to the security council," said Mr Bolton.

The UN international atomic energy agency has given Iran until October 31
to prove it does not have a nuclear weapons program Mohammad Khatami, the
Iranian president, said on Wednesday that Tehran would offer whatever
cooperation was needed to show its nuclear program was to produce
electricity.

Mr Bolton yesterday questioned the need for Iran to produce nuclear power,
given the size of its natural gas and oil reserves. He said the existing
non-proliferation treaty needed to be strengthened to deal with Iran
which, he speculated, could have a nuclear weapons capability "probably
towards the end of the decade".

He said North Korea was being dealt with by multilateral talks conducted
by China, and that Pakistan had denied trading in nuclear materials with
North Korea. "We take them at their word," he said. Asked about Israel's
nuclear weapons capability, he replied: "The issue for the US is what
poses a threat to the US."

On Iraq, Mr Bolton said "the purpose of military action was to eliminate
the regime ... The real security risk was the regime". He implied it was
not weapons of mass destruction that was the issue but whose hands they
were in.

Mr Bolton described the "level of cooperation" from Syria - which
Washington accuses of manufacturing chemical weapons and harboring
terrorists - as "not satisfactory".

He did not specify what action the US might take against Iran and Syria
beyond pointing out that the US already imposes sanctions against Iran and
that Congress was poised to adopt a law applying them to Syria.

He said Libya, a country with which Britain is now developing closer ties,
had "increased efforts to acquire biological, chemical, and nuclear,
weapons".

Mr Bolton was in London for meetings on US plans to intercept ships and
aircraft suspected of trafficking weapons of mass destruction.

Guardian Unlimited  Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003