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Bush administration downplays Iranian missile tests

The Washington Post

July 10, 2008

WASHINGTON - Iran test-fired nine missiles yesterday - including at least one capable of striking Israel - and asserted that thousands more were "ready for launch," but Bush administration officials downplayed the possibility of military action against the Islamic republic and belittled Iran's claims of progress on its nuclear program.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters the world was not closer to a military confrontation, even though Iran's missile launch came just days after Israel conducted its own high-profile military exercise in the Mediterranean.

"What we're seeing is a lot of signaling going on," he said, adding that both Israel and Iran "understand [the] consequences" of military action.

Undersecretary of State William Burns told Congress, "We view force as an option that is on the table but a last resort."

Burns said the United States and its allies had made progress in thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions, saying: "While deeply troubling, Iran's real nuclear progress has been less than the sum of its boasts."

The statements by the Bush administration contrasted with tougher talk by the two presidential candidates.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee, issued a statement against Iran early yesterday morning that the tests "demonstrate again the dangers it poses to its neighbors and to the wider region, especially Israel."

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) fired back that the missiles showed "the threat from Iran's nuclear program is real and it is grave" and that it is necessary to begin "direct, aggressive and sustained diplomacy."

The two campaigns then squabbled over whether Obama had supported strong action against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

With only six months remaining in President George W. Bush's term, senior officials have repeatedly dismissed the possibility of military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. Instead, the administration has stepped up a diplomatic effort, both toughening sanctions and joining other leading nations in sweetening incentives for Iran to suspend its nuclear activities and begins serious negotiations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month even signed a joint letter to the Iranian foreign minister offering the deal, though the administration has refused thus far to allow a senior U.S. official to join other foreign officials in talks in Tehran.

"This government is working hard to make sure that the diplomatic and economic approach to dealing with Iran - and trying to get the Iranian government to change its policies - is the strategy and is the approach that continues to dominate," Gates said.

Iran has responded with cryptic and somewhat encouraging comments, though it has continued to work on its nuclear program. Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief and main Western interlocutor on Iran's nuclear program, is expected to meet with Iranian officials next week.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack noted that Iran has conducted similar exercises in recent years. Analysts said the tests and Iranian rhetoric were meant as highly symbolic warning to Israel and the United States.

"We warn the enemies who intend to threaten us with military exercises and empty psychological operations that our hand will always be on the trigger and our missiles will always be ready to launch," Revolutionary Guards air force commander Hossein Salami said yesterday, according to the official IRNA news agency.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

Sen. Barack Obama

Iran "poses the greatest strategic challenge to the United States in the region in a generation. ... What this underscores is the need for ... a clear policy that is putting the burden on Iran to change behavior. And frankly, we just have not been able to do that the last several years, partly because we're not engaged in direct diplomacy."

Sen. John McCain

"It's time for action and it's time to make Iranians understand that this kind of violation of international treaties, this kind of threatening of their neighbors, this kind of continued military activity is not without costs."

Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice

The tests are "evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one. ... Those who say that there is no Iranian missile threat against which we should build a missile defense system perhaps ought to talk to the Iranians about their claims."

AP/NEWSDAY - Iran tests missiles. Iran test-fired a new version of the Shahab-3 missile in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday

Shahab-3 ballistic missile. Derived from the North Korean No-dong missile: "Shahab" means meteor or shooting star in Farsi.

Range 1,250 miles

Payload Reportedly armed with a 1-ton conventional warhead.

1,250-mile range

SOURCES: ESRI GLOBALSECURITY.ORG