Iran: US is spoiling for an ‘unnecessary’ fight
Envoy denies threats, says no one wants war
LONDON – The United States is playing a “very dangerous game” as it tries to “drag Iran into an unnecessary war,” a senior Iranian official said.
Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, said Tuesday that the Trump administration made a “serious miscalculation” in deploying an aircraft carrier strike group, B-52 bombers and other military personnel and equipment to the Persian Gulf to counter unspecified Iranian threats.
Baeidinejad denied that Iran or its “proxies” were behind what Washington described as the “sabotage” of oil
tankers in the Persian Gulf belonging to Saudi Arabia, Norway and the United Arab Emirates. Tuesday, Saudi Arabia said drones attacked one of its oil pipelines and other energy infrastructure, an incident that caused global oil price benchmarks to jump.
“We are prepared for any eventuality, this I can tell you,” Baeidinejad said. The United States and Iran have no formal diplomatic channel of communication.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said neither country wants a war. “This is not a military confrontation because no war is to happen,” he said, according to Iran’s state television and a government Twitter account. “We don’t seek a war nor do they. They know a war wouldn’t be beneficial for them.”
Baeidinejad said that from the Iranian perspective, it appears that some of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, such as national security adviser John Bolton, are “trying to convince” Trump to start a military confrontation that neither country wants and would be “devastating” for Iran, the United States and the region.
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented a military plan at a meeting of top national security officials that would send as many as 120,000 U.S. troops to the Middle East if Iran strikes U.S. forces in the region or speeds up its development of nuclear weapons, according to a report published Monday in The New York Times . The plan was partly ordered by Bolton, the report said. It does not call for a land invasion of Iran.
Trump dismissed the report but said he would send troops if needed.
Since last week, the Trump administration has insisted it has “specific and credible” intelligence indicating Iran or its regional supporters may be preparing attacks against American forces or targets in the region. “It’s going to be a bad problem for Iran if something happens,” Trump said Monday outside the White House.
The details of that intelligence remain murky.
Trita Parsi, founder of the National Iranian American Council, wrote on Twitter: “We should remind ourselves that this is a TOTALLY UNNECESSARY CRISIS!” The council seeks improved relations between Washington and Tehran.
Last year, Trump withdrew from a landmark deal reached between Iran and world powers in 2015 under which Iran promised to curtail its nuclear program in return for relief from crippling sanctions. President Barack Obama viewed the accord as one his signature foreign policy accomplishments. Trump campaigned on abolishing it.
“This is politics, and this is about Bolton and others who have had a bee in their bonnet about Iran for as long as they have been in politics,” said Robert Muggah, a specialist in international security and co-founder of the SecDev Group, an Ottawa, Canada-headquartered consultancy that analyzes open source intelligence.
“This is not a military confrontation because no war is to happen. We don’t seek a war nor do they. They know a war wouldn’t be beneficial for them.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Iran’s supreme leader, quoted on state television and a government Twitter account
Trump has pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, imposing a series of increasingly onerous economic sanctions that crippled its economy, led to runaway inflation and caused food and medicine shortages. Last week, Tehran announced it was abandoning two of its obligations under the nuclear deal: exporting excess uranium and “heavy water” used in nuclear reactors. The Trump administration characterized the move as an attempt by Iran to hold the United States “hostage” through “nuclear blackmail.”
“The (nuclear deal) is becoming meaningless because of the U.S.,” Baeidinejad said, noting that Iran gave the three Western European signatories to the deal – the United Kingdom, Germany and France – 60 days to “salvage” it.
Baeidinejad wouldn’t say whether Iran would consider an offer from Trump to hold talks with Tehran. “I’d like to see them call me,” Trump said last week.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart, reiterated Tuesday that the United States doesn’t seek war with Iran.