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MOSCOW, May 29: Washington has drawn up a plan for military action against Iran principally using bases in Iraq, but also some in Georgia and Azerbaijan, a Russian newspaper said on Thursday, citing diplomatic sources.
“The military action is designed to complete a popular uprising on which the Pentagon is counting,” said Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily.
But the US ambassador to Azerbaijan denied the report.
“We have no such plans,” ambassador Ross Wilson told reporters in the Azeri capital, Baku.
Azerbaijan also denied the report while the Georgian embassy in Moscow said “it knew nothing about US plans in respect of Iran”.
A deal had been struck between the US administration and Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliyev for American troops to deploy in the Caucasus state, the Russian newspaper said in its report.
Azerbaijan shares a border with Iran. Like its neighbour, Azerbaijan has a majority Shia population, but it has close ties with the West and supported the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
DIFFERENT APPROACHES: The United States invaded Iraq citing ties to terrorists and unconventional weapons, but similar symptoms in Iran may require a different approach, the White House said on Wednesday.
“We’ve always said that every circumstance, every situation requires a response that is tailored to that set of circumstances,” said Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser to US President George Bush.
Ms Rice’s comments appeared to be an apparent effort to soothe worries that a war of words between Tehran and Washington may turn out to be a prelude to military action — as was the case with Iraq.
The United States has charged that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons programme and is trying to undermine the US presence in Iraq through support of hardline Shia groups.
Top US officials have publicly accused Iran of doing too little to crack down on “terrorists” within its borders, including Al Qaeda members Washington has linked to the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh.
Washington is “deeply concerned about what is going on” in the Islamic republic, which Mr Bush named as part of an “axis of evil” with Iraq and North Korea, said Ms Rice, but Saddam Hussein “was in a category unlike anyone else”.
Ms Bush will raise concerns about Iran with leaders of Russia and China, whom he will see during an upcoming trip to Europe, and will await a report from the UN nuclear watchdog agency, expected next month, to assess its options, she said.
“We do believe that there are multilateral ways to deal with that situation, including what we’re trying to do with Russia, what we will try to do with China,” said Ms Rice.
“We will see what the (International Atomic Energy Agency) report says, and we will see what options we have once the IAEA has reported.” —AFP
