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Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing
raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran's
nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Teheran's efforts to develop
an atomic bomb.
Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing
weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph
has learnt.
They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as
America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the
Islamic republic's nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing
only a civilian energy programme.
"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment,"
said a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency
in recent months."
The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with Britain which
fears that an attack would spark violence across the Middle East, reprisals
in the West and may not cripple Teheran's nuclear programme. But the steady
flow of disclosures about Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent
anti-Israeli threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted the fresh
assessment of military options by Washington. The most likely strategy would
involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to
40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices.
They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling.
The Bush administration has recently announced plans to add conventional ballistic
missiles to the armoury of its nuclear Trident submarines within the next two
years. If ready in time, they would also form part of the plan of attack.
Teheran has dispersed its nuclear plants, burying some deep underground, and
has recently increased its air defences, but Pentagon planners believe that
the raids could seriously set back Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran was last weekend reported to the United Nations Security Council by the
International Atomic Energy Agency for its banned nuclear activities. Teheran
reacted by announcing that it would
resume full-scale uranium enrichment - producing material that could arm
nuclear devices.
The White House says that it wants a diplomatic solution to the stand-off,
but President George W Bush has refused to rule out military action and reaffirmed
last weekend that Iran's nuclear ambitions "will not be tolerated".
Sen John McCain, the Republican front-runner to succeed Mr Bush in 2008, has
advocated military strikes as a last resort. He said recently: "There is
only only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option
and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."
Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat, has made the same case and Mr Bush is expected
to be faced by the decision within two years.
By then, Iran will be close to acquiring the knowledge to make an atomic bomb,
although the construction will take longer. The President will not want to be
seen as leaving the White House having allowed Iran's ayatollahs to go atomic.
In Teheran yesterday, crowds celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic
revolution chanted "Nuclear technology is our inalienable right" and
cheered Mr Ahmadinejad when he said that Iran may reconsider membership of the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
He was defiant over possible economic sanctions.
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More Evidence Nuking Iran is on Schedule
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