WASHINGTON, Oct 30: The White House assured the international community on Tuesday that the United States is not about to attack Iran. The assurance followed mounting tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Last week, the Bush administration announced a new set of sweeping sanctions against Iran, designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and the elite Al Quds Force as a supporter of terrorism.
Several other Iranian individuals and organisations were also sanctioned. These include five Revolutionary Guards’ leaders, nine businesses and the Iranian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics.
The sanctions cap a year of growing US pressure on Iran, including billions of dollars in arms sales to Gulf states and Israel, interception of Iranian arms shipments in Iraq and Afghanistan, detention of Iranian agents in Iraq, and pressure on the UN and European allies to increase Iran’s isolation.
Earlier this month, President George W. Bush warned that Iran’s alleged efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon could lead to the “Third World War,” while Vice-President Dick Cheney alerted Iran to prepare for “dire consequences’ if it does not abandon its nuclear programme.
Such statements, combined with the sanctions, caused widespread speculations that the United States is preparing the ground for military strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations.
The moves against Iran — a major oil producer — also caused a rapid increase in world oil price, as crude oil traded for an unprecedented $92 a barrel in the New York market last week.
So, when the White House held its first briefing on Tuesday after a three-day gap, Helen Thomas, a veteran journalist who has been covering White House briefings for almost half a century, urged Press Secretary Dana Perino to explain if the Bush administration was planning to attack Iran.
