US planning strike on Iran

From JPost, Apr. 8, 2006 12:59, by BARRY SCHWEID AND JERUSALEM POST STAFF ....

The American government is planning a military strike on Iran, including bombing its nuclear reactor, according to an investigative report to be published in the April 17 issue week of The New Yorker magazine.

According to the report, which quotes a former senior CIA official, President George Bush and his administration see Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as "a new Adolf Hitler."
A senior Pentagon adviser, quoted in the article, said the White House was convinced the only way to solve the problem would be to change the balance of power with Iran through war.
Another former senior American defense official said the United States was planning a series of bombing operations against Iran that would humiliate its religious leadership and lead its people to replace their government.

The report comes shortly after the failure of talks between the US and Iran over the future of Iraq, according to a source in the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, Israel Radio reported. Nevertheless, the source said, it was hoped that the discussions would recommence after the establishment of a new government in Iraq.

....The US and the Europeans have brought their case against Iran to the United Nations, but there is no decision on whether to try to impose economic or other penalties on Iran to try to force a resumption of negotiations with Britain, France and Germany.

In Vienna, Austria, diplomatic sources reported the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, would go to Teheran this week to try to wrest concessions. In about two weeks, he is due to report to the Security Council on whether Iran is heeding a call by the council to reimpose a freeze on enrichment of uranium and fully open its nuclear program to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

... the (US) administration hoped ElBaradei would reinforce a message to the Iranian government that it must comply with its international obligations, including curbs on proliferating nuclear technology.