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http://www.dawn.com/2002/03/14/int13.htm DAWN (Pakistan) March 14, 2002 Pentagon N-plan sends shivers around ME By Alistair Lyon LONDON (Reuters): A secret Pentagon review of nuclear options has alarmed Middle Eastern "rogue" states listed as potential US targets and could even encourage them to acquire weapons of mass destruction, analysts said. The US Defence Department's nuclear posture review, reported in US media, talks of developing new kinds of nuclear weapons and sets out contingency plans for using them on Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria, along with China, North Korea and Russia. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has sought to portray the review as routine planning, but national security adviser Condoleezza Rice stressed its message of deterrence. The US administration was sending a "very strong signal" to anyone tempted to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States. "The only way to deter such a use is to be clear it would be met with a devastating response," she said. William Hopkinson, a security expert at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs, said that while the review might never become US policy, its contents could handicap American efforts to win support for a possible war on Iraq. "It will immensely complicate (US Vice President Dick) Cheney's visit to the Middle East," he said. Cheney was in Egypt on Wednesday on the second leg of an 11-nation Middle East tour to discuss the US-led 'war on terror' and possible military action against Iraq. Most Arab leaders were expected to tell him their priority was ending Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, not removing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Regional reaction to the nuclear review has ranged from stunned silence to anger that Washington might jettison a pledge by the big powers not to use nuclear arms against states that have foresworn them, unless they have nuclear-armed allies. ISRAEL ODD MAN OUT: Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria have all signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has not. "The United States believes that by threatening those countries, they will withdraw their logical demands," said Iran's influential former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. "The widespread presence of American and allied troops around the world shows their policy is one of intimidation." Iraq's Saddam, widely tipped as the next target in Bush's "war on terrorism", said this week Iraqis would not be scared by "futile threats" from the United States. Salim al-Kubaisi, head of the Iraqi parliament's Foreign and Arab Relations Committee, said the US plan was a flagrant violation of international conventions. "The United Nations should, first of all, condemn such an American move and then it should take action to prevent the United States from using such weapons," he said. Saddam refrained from using biological or chemical weapons in the 1991 Gulf War after US President George Bush warned Baghdad that this would trigger "the strongest possible response" - a possible reference to nuclear reprisals. Abdel Monem Said, director of Cairo's al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said the review was part of efforts to force "rogue" states to bow to US wishes. "It's part of psychological pressure the US wants to put on some states like Iraq to get them to do things like accept UN weapons inspectors," he said. "The United States wants to keep them on high alert, to keep them guessing." There has been no public response to the Pentagon review from Syria or Libya, both trying to avoid becoming targets in the anti-terror campaign that shot to the top of Washington's priorities after the Sept 11 attacks on US cities. INCENTIVE TO PROLIFERATE: Hazem Saghiyeh, a columnist for the London-based pan-Arab al-Hayat newspaper, said the review, said to recommend building smaller, more accurate nuclear devices that could be used for example against caves or underground bunkers, had dangerously blurred the distinction between conventional and nuclear arms. He said the Pentagon document could spur the nuclear aspirations of U.S. foes in the Middle East. "Nuclear weapons are becoming smaller and cheaper and they are not the monopoly of the United States and the main nuclear powers. Access to them is much easier than before." Saghiyeh said the Pentagon review, in what he called its reliance on the law of the jungle, represented an ideological victory of sorts for the countries on the US target list. "Instead of setting an example, (the United States) is accepting the example of rogue states," he argued. Hopkinson said the review's disclosures were sure to annoy Syria, which he said had been cooperating with the United States in the struggle against terrorism since September 11. Libya would also feel stung about its inclusion on the potential nuclear target list after its efforts to rehabilitate itself in world eyes by handing over the suspects in the 1988 bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, in Scotland. "These countries will ask, 'why us?'," Hopkinson said. "They will compare and contrast with Israel, which is a nuclear power and also threatens Arabs in an outrageous way." He said the review would enrage Iran, which had collaborated in the US campaign against Osama bin Laden's Taliban hosts, and would make life harder for reformist elements in Tehran. "Iran was mentioned idiotically in the 'axis of evil'," Hopkinson said. "If anything were to lead to an impulse for nuclear proliferation, it would be that.-Reuters __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
