Strike on Iran could miss nuclear sites: US

Pentagon chief Leon Panetta late Friday warned there was no guarantee a US military strike on Iran would hit intended targets linked to Tehran’s nuclear program, saying the sites are “difficult to get at.”
The US defense secretary has recently voiced his misgivings about bombing Iran in a series of public remarks, amid speculation Israel may take pre-emptive action to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.
But for the first time Friday, Panetta — the former director of the CIA — appeared to suggest Iran’s underground nuclear facilities might survive air strikes. “The indication is that at best it (military action) might postpone it (Iran’s nuclear program) maybe by one or possibly two years,” he said in remarks at an event organised by the Brookings think-tank in Washington.
“It depends on the ability to truly get at the targets that they’re after. Frankly, some of those targets are very difficult to get at,” Panetta said. Defense analysts have often pointed out that Iran has sought to hide sensitive nuclear sites and material in underground facilities, and Western officials privately acknowledge the hidden targets pose a military challenge. Panetta reiterated his view that a strike against Iran could benefit the regime in Tehran at a moment when it is “off-balance” and out of step with popular uprisings sweeping the region.
He also said a strike could derail the European and US economies, endanger US troops and trigger an unpredictable cycle of violence. “Lastly, the consequence could be that we would have an escalation that would take place that would not only involve losing lives but I think could consume the Middle East in confrontation and conflict that we would regret. “So we have to be careful about the unintended consequences of that kind of attack,” Panetta said.
Iran’s diplomats expelled from London over the storming of the British embassy in Tehran arrived home on Saturday, as US Vice President Joe Biden was to discuss the West’s mounting concerns in Turkey. Some 150 hardline students chanting “Death to Britain” and holding flower garlands were there to welcome them. Britain, which evacuated all its own diplomats from Tehran for their safety after the attacks, closed its embassy and ordered Iran to do likewise. It said the assault on its embassy could only have occurred with the tacit consent of the Islamic republic’s leaders.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was at the airport to welcome the diplomats. The assault on the British embassy and downgrading of diplomatic ties between the two countries to their minimum level has tipped into crisis a showdown between the West and Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. The European Union has tightened sanctions on Iran and warned that extra measures targeting its financial and oil sectors could follow.
The sanctions were coordinated with similar measures by the United States and Canada. Moreover, France has decided to temporarily downsize its embassy in Tehran as a precautionary measure following the storming of the British embassy earlier in the week, a French diplomat said on Saturday. The decision will affect part of the diplomatic staff as well as all of the families of French personnel at the embassy but not the French community in Tehran, the diplomatic source said.
More than half of the around 30 personnel at the French embassy, consulate, economic and culture centres bearing diplomatic or service passports could be affected. No specific instruction to leave Iran has been given to the French community of around 800 people. Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni urged US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta to ratchet up sanctions against Iran “without delay,” a statement from her Kadima party said on Saturday.
“The world needs to stop Iran,” the Kadima statement quoted Livni as telling Panetta. “Stronger, tougher sanctions are required without delay.” “The struggle against a nuclear Iran, and renewed movement in negotiations with the Palestinians will strengthen the pragmatic camp in the region,” she told Panetta Meanwhile, a deadly explosion at a missile development plant last month has not affected Iran’s ballistic missile programme, its top general said in comments published on Saturday.
Armed forces chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi said the death of Iranian military experts at the Bid Ganeh base outside Tehran on November 12 “had no effect on the self-sufficiency unit” of the elite Revolutionary Guards — responsible for weapons research, the Resalat newspaper reported.