TEHRAN, July 3, (Agencies): Iran and the United States on Tuesday underlined their military readiness for conflict should faltering diplomacy over Tehran’s atomic activities fail, as tensions rose over tougher Western sanctions.
Iran said it successfully fired several dozen missiles — including a medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic weapon with a range capable of striking Israel — in war games in its central desert region designed to show its capacity for counter-attack.
US officials, meanwhile, detailed a quiet US military build-up in the Gulf region that includes the deployment of warships and
F-22 stealth fighter jets.
The belligerent posturing came on the day technical experts from Iran and from world powers, including the United States, were due to meet in Istanbul in the latest round of talks.
The negotiations have been downgraded from a senior political level after three previous rounds this year that failed to bridge vast differences held by each side.
Iran refuses to bow to Western demands that it curb its sensitive uranium enrichment under the pressure of punishing economic sanctions that were ramped up last week to their most severe level so far.
“The sanctions imposed against our country are the harshest and strongest ever imposed. If the enemies think they can weaken Iran with these sanctions, they are wrong,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
Tehran is demanding its “right” to enrichment be recognised and the “hostile” sanctions be eased for the talks to progress. It rejects Western suspicions that it is seeking a nuclear weapons “break-out” capability.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast accused the Western nations in the so-called P5+1 group (comprising the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany) of dragging out the talks and perhaps wanting them to fail.
“Many people are starting to conclude that maybe there are specific goals in dragging out the talks and preventing their success. One option is that perhaps there is a link with the US (presidential) election” in November, he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, speaking on Monday to the ISNA news agency, said that, should the talks collapse, “the other alternative is confrontation.”
Israel, which is not party to the talks, has warned it could launch pre-emptive air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities to hinder what it sees as a threat by the Islamic republic to its existence.
US President Barack Obama has also repeatedly said that “all options” — including that of US military action — are on the table regarding Iran.
With that in mind, Iran on Tuesday test-fired missiles into its central desert region in war games dubbed “Grand Prophet 7” and meant to simulate counter-attacks on US military bases in Afghanistan and other neighbouring countries, and possibly on Israel.
“The message of these Grand Prophet 7 manoeuvres is to show the determination, the will and the power of the Iranian people in defending their national interests and vital values,” the number two of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, said, according to IRNA.
“It’s a reaction to those who are politically discourteous to the Iranian people by saying ‘all options are on the table’,” he said.
The launches included a Shahab-3 ballistic missile which has a maximum range of 2,000 kms (1,200 miles), enough to reach Israel, which is 1,000 kms from Iran.
Some 120 lawmakers in Iran’s 290-seat parliament have also signed on to a draft bill calling for the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the oil-rich Gulf to be closed to oil tankers headed to Europe in retaliation for an EU embargo on Iranian crude that came into effect on Sunday.
US officials responded to the announcement of the Iranian manoeuvres with comments to The New York Times newspaper stressing that Washington would view any attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz as a “red line” triggering a US military reaction.
“The message to Iran is, ‘Don’t even think about it,’” the daily quoted a senior Defense Department official as saying on condition of anonymity.
“Don’t even think about closing the strait. We’ll clear the mines. Don’t even think about sending your fast boats out to harass our vessels or commercial shipping. We’ll put them on the bottom of the Gulf.”
The United States has moved new forces into the Gulf to keep strategic waterways open and strike deep within Iran in the event of a regional military escalation, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
The Times cited senior officials as saying the quiet build-up was aimed at reassuring Israel that Washington is serious about addressing Iran’s nuclear program and keeping the Straits of Hormuz — a key oil choke point — open.
The Navy has doubled the number of minesweepers in the region, to eight vessels, and stealthy F-22s and older F-15C warplanes have been deployed to regional bases to reinforce existing carrier strike groups, the Times said.
Also:
NAIROBI, Kenya: Two Iranians who led authorities to a cache of explosives after their arrest planned to attack Israeli, US, British or Saudi targets inside Kenya, officials told The Associated Press on Monday.
The two are believed to be members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, an elite and secretive unit that acts against foreign interests, one of the officials said.
The foiled attack appeared to fit into a global pattern of alleged plots by Iranian agents. Previous plots were uncovered in the US — against Saudi Arabia’s ambassador — as well as in Thailand, Azerbaijan and India.
Kenyan security forces arrested the Iranians on June 19 and were then led to 15 kgs (33 lbs) of RDX, a powerful explosive that could have been used against multiple targets or concentrated in one large bomb. If used together, the explosives could have leveled a medium-sized hotel, officials told AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
The two suspects — Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi — appeared in a Kenyan court last week, where Mohammad said he had been interrogated by Israeli agents. Israel’s embassy said it had no comment.
In Israel, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the AP that “there are no limits to the Iranian terror.”
“After Iran sent its people to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on American soil and carry out attacks in Azerbaijan, Bangkok, Tbilisi and New Delhi, now its intention to carry out attacks in Africa is revealed. The international community needs to fight the world’s greatest exporter of terror,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
Given the previous alleged plots against Israeli interests overseas, it appeared likely that Israeli properties in Kenya were the likely primary targets, said one of the two officials, a Western diplomat.
Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the alleged plot fits into a pattern of Iranian actions against Israel.
Israel wants Iran to be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only, such as generating electricity and medical research.
Five Iranian scientists with links to Tehran’s nuclear program have been killed in the last two years, and Iran has blamed Israel — as well as US and British intelligence agencies — for the attacks. In return, Israel blames Iran for alleged reprisal missions on Israeli property and personnel overseas.
Iran has denied any links to attacks outside its borders.