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Thursday, July 28, 2011
Pakistan more preoccupied with India than extremists: US
* General Dempsey warns Tehran not to pursue nuclear weapons, sponsor Iraq attacks
WASHINGTON: The nominee to be the next chief of the US military on Tuesday warned Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons or sponsor attacks in Iraq, saying it would be making a “serious miscalculation.”
At his confirmation hearing, General Martin Dempsey pledged to guide the world’s most powerful military through a new era of tighter budgets and challenges such as cyber war. He promised to carry out orders for a drawdown in Afghanistan and to keep up pressure on Pakistan to fight militants. But Dempsey, now the US Army’s chief of staff, saved some of his toughest criticism for Iran. In prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, he called the clerical regime a “destabilising force.”
“With its nuclear activities and its surrogate activities in southern Iraq, there is a high potential that Iran will make a serious miscalculation of US resolve,” said Dempsey, nominated to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dempsey said that Iran may be seeking a “Beirut-like moment” in Iraq – a reference to the devastating 1983 attack against US and French forces in the Lebanese capital claimed by Iranian-linked militants. Dempsey said Iran wanted to “send a message that they have expelled us from Iraq.” The United States plans to pull its remaining 47,000 troops from Iraq at the end of the year, ending a deeply polarising military mission.
“As long as we’ve got those soldiers there, we’re going to do whatever we have to do to protect them, and I want to make sure that’s clear to everyone,” Dempsey said during questioning. Iran, which has had tense relations with the United States since the 1979 Islamic revolution, has refused to halt uranium enrichment, which it contends is for civilian energy. The United Nations has imposed four rounds of sanctions, with Western nations accusing Iran of building a nuclear bomb. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk