shall we nuke Iran?

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JANUARY 13, 2005

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jan 13, 2005

Full story at
https://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA13Ak02.html

--RED LINES IN THE IRANIAN SAND (Now that Iran has broken the seals it put two-and-a-half years ago on an atomic research facility at Natanz, 250 kilometers south of Tehran, it has passed a "red line" that makes a tough response almost inevitable. … As both sides ratchet up the confrontation, the whiff of conflict hangs in the air, with distressing implications for the whole world. … With attitudes hardening, Iran could soon face tough sanctions from the Security Council in a telescoped replay of a part of the drama over Iraq between 2000 and 2003, which eventually led to its invasion and occupation. … A former Indian intelligence officer, Vikram Sood, said that such an attack might use nuclear weapons. "A conventional attack on Iran would be expensive and not quite cost-effective. It would allow [for] Iranian retaliation." To preempt retaliation, the US might use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran's underground facilities. … The fear also is that unlike in the case of Iraq when considerable time was spent in building the case, this time the attack will be sudden and actual justifications will be given later." Any such attack would break the 60-year-old, very welcome, taboo against the use of nuclear weapons - with extraordinarily negative consequences for global peace and security. Such an outcome can only be prevented if the West moves away from coercive diplomacy to isolate Iran and opens serious talks with it, and if the nuclear weapons states rethink their own policies.)