National News
US military strike on Iran becomes more likely: ex-CIA chief
Posted on: Mon July 26, 2010
National Highlights
ISLAMABAD: A US military strike on Iran has become more likely and could be justifiable in the future, former CIA chief General Michael Hayden said Sunday on CNN s State of the Union.
My personal view is that Iran left to its own devices will get itself to that step right below a nuclear weapon, said Hayden, and frankly that will be as destabilizing as their actually having a weapon.
The former CIA director stated that an attack on Iran had not originally been a serious option, but in light of Iran s intensified pursuit of nuclear materials, the military option may not be the worst of all possible outcomes. Michael Hayden is former four star general of the US air force who is former director of National Security Agency (NSA) and director of the CIA from May 2006 to February 2009.
The Jerusalem Post has reported that the UN, US and EU all recently passed sanctions against Iran in an attempt to deter the Islamic Republic from continuing to enrich uranium. The Western powers fear Teheran will use the enriched uranium to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran insists that the programme s aims are peaceful.
US officials have said military action remains an option if sanctions fail to deter Iran. In the meanwhile Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, after a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, Sunday said that Iran might hold talks on the country s nuclear programme with the EU in early September. Davutoglu called the news a positive step forward in solving the crisis diplomatically.
Courtesy : The News