day that military action would not stop Iran’s nuclear program and instead would only make it “deeper and more covert.”
The defense secretary also said he suspected that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi may now think President Ahmadi-nejad is lying to him about the impact of foreign sanctions on Iran.
Gates told a conference that such military action would offer only a “short-term solution” to the thorny issue of Iran’s nuclear program.
Military action against the Iranian government would “bring together a divided nation. It will make them absolutely committed to obtaining nuclear weapons,” the Gates said.
Under that scenario, Iran’s secret nuclear efforts “would just go deeper and more covert,” said Gates.
He said he believed diplomacy and economic pressure were the best way to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear project.
“The only long-term solution to avoiding an Iranian nuclear weapons capability is for the Iranians to decide it’s not in their interest,” Gates said. “Everything else is a short-term solution—is a two-to-three year solution.”
Gates spoke of military action as if he would be limited to air raids. He did not discuss stronger military action, such as an actual land invasion of Iran. It appeared he didn’t even consider that an option.
Gates also said there were signs that economic sanctions had hit Iran hard and created tensions between Khamenehi and Ahmadi-nejad.
“We even have some evidence that Khamenehi now is beginning to wonder if Ahmadi-nejad is lying to him about the impact of the sanctions on the economy,” he said.
“I personally believe they are intent on acquiring nuclear weapons, but also the information we have is that they’ve been surprised by the impact of the sanctions,” Gates said, adding that the measures “have really bitten much harder than they anticipated.”
