International

SP foreign affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel has asked the Foreign Minister to give his views on reports in reputable international media sources that the United States plans to attack Iran.

According to the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, the United States is preparing to launch a major air attack on Iran if international negotiations fail to lead to the country abandoning possible plans to construct nuclear weapons. The attacks, which would employ cruise missiles fired from ships at sea as well as newly developed bombs, dropped by B2 bombers, and capable of penetrating deep underground, would be aimed at the destruction of atomic energy installations and the reduction of long range rockets to ashes.

Commenting on his parliamentary question, Harry Van Bommel said, “It is not the first time that we have read about these sort of plans in the press. Last winter similar reports appeared in American newspapers, which also stated that Israel would be involved. Now we're looking at exceptionally serious and large-scale US plans, which according to the British newspaper are much more significant and urgent than 'normal' war plans which one might expect to find in any military headquarters.”

Also in Britain, the Oxford Research Group, a highly respected think-tank, today published a report outlining the results of research into the likely consequences of such an attack. Professor Paul Rogers, a security expert who led the team which prepared the report, warns that air attacks would lead to exceptionally high casualties, enormous environmental dangers attendant upon large-scale radioactive contamination, and escalation of war in the Middle East, as well as world-wide tensions.

“The situation regarding Iran's nuclear policies is becoming more serious. A military answer to the present crisis is an exceptionally dangerous option, one which must be rejected. Alternative solutions must be sought, however difficult this might be.”