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Letter to the editor

Nonnuclear Iran still a threat, says Gates

Gulf Arab countries question the U.S. defense chief on policies toward Iran and Israel.

By Times Wires
Published December 9, 2007

MANAMA, Bahrain - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Saturday that Iran is a grave threat to regional security even without nuclear weapons, and called on Tehran to account for U.S. intelligence on its support for terrorism and instability around the world.

Just days after Iran claimed political victory after a new U.S. intelligence assessment found that Tehran had frozen its nuclear weapons program, Gates said Iran could restart those efforts at any time and must come clean about its efforts to build a bomb.

In a speech to a conference on regional security, Gates dismissed those who suggested that the United States had a double standard on nuclear arms in the Middle East and that a nuclear-armed Israel was the real danger. He said that, unlike Iran, Israel had never threatened to destroy a neighbor.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made aggressive comments toward Israel, including a call for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

Gates mocked Iran's praise of a new National Intelligence Estimate as a "watershed" - the first time Tehran has accepted the conclusions of U.S. spy agencies. As the audience chuckled, Gates said Iran's approval of the U.S. intelligence estimate required it to accept other assessments of its behavior.

"Since that government now acknowledges the quality of American intelligence assessments," Gates said, "I assume that it will also embrace as valid American intelligence assessments of its funding and training of militia groups in Iraq, its deployment of lethal weapons and technology to both Iraq and Afghanistan, its ongoing support of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas that have murdered thousands of innocent civilians and its continued research and development of medium-range ballistic missiles that are not particularly cost-effective unless equipped with warheads carrying weapons of mass destruction."

The National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran had a secret nuclear arms program, but that it halted the effort in 2003.

Gates said Iran "cannot pick and choose" only the U.S. intelligence it likes.

He said the estimate "is explicit that Iran is keeping its options open and could restart its nuclear weapons program at any time - I would add, if it has not done so already."

Gulf Arab countries challenged Gates on policies toward Iran and Israel Saturday.

Several delegates at the security conference repeated that U.S. was hypocritical for supporting Israeli nuclear weapons, and questioned Washington's refusal to meet with Iran to discuss the Islamic state's nuclear activities.

"Not considering Israel a threat to security in the region is considered a biased policy that is based on a double standard," said Abdul-Rahman al-Attiyah, the secretary general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Experts have long maintained Israel has nuclear weapons, although the Jewish state refuses to confirm or deny it.

The dissent from Gulf Arab delegates highlights fissures between the United States and its Sunni Muslim allies, despite their wariness of Shiite Iran's growing influence.

Iran decided at the last minute to skip Saturday's meeting, the second day of the conference.

Soon after Gates' speech, he was challenged by Bahraini Minister of Labor Majeed al-Alawi, who wanted to know whether Gates thought "the Zionist (Israeli) nuclear weapon is a threat to the region."

Gates paused, and answered tersely: "No, I do not."

Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani also contradicted Gates' comparison of Iran and Israel. "We can't really compare Iran with Israel. Iran is our neighbor, and we shouldn't really look at it as an enemy," he said. "I think Israel through 50 years has taken land, kicking out the Palestinians, and interferes under the excuse of security, blaming the other party."

Information from the Associated Press and the New York times was used in this report.

[Last modified December 9, 2007, 01:42:15]