Chairman of Joint Chiefs to Iran: Let's talk
Thursday, July 3, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has called for a dialogue with Iran to prevent a confrontation in the Gulf that could disrupt the flow of much of the world's oil supply.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a U.S. military dialogue with Iran could ease tensions in the Gulf. Mullen said such a dialogue must be conducted as part of a larger effort between the governments in Teheran and Washington.
"We haven't had much of a dialogue with the Iranians for a long time," Mullen told a news conference on Wednesday. "But as has been pointed out more than once, it takes two people to want to have a dialogue, not just the desire on one part."
The military's call for a dialogue came in wake of a series of naval confrontations between the United States and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Strait of Hormuz in late 2007 and 2008. Nobody was injured in the encounters.
"When I talk about dialogue — that would need to be led, obviously, politically and diplomatically," Mullen said. "And if it then resulted in a military-to-military dialogue, I think that part of it certainly could add to a better understanding about each other. But I'm really focused on the diplomatic aspect."
Mullen, who returned from a trip to Israel, said the United States was concerned over Middle East instability. He said Iran has become the center of regional instability.
"Iran is the center of what is unstable in that part of the world, and it reaches from Teheran to Beirut," Mullen said. "My position with regard to the Iranian regime has not changed. They remain a destabilizing factor in the area. I'm convinced the solution still lies in using other elements of national power to change Iranian behavior, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure."
Mullen, who did not elaborate, said Iran was continuing to develop nuclear weapons. He said Teheran has been supporting Syria as well as such leading insurgency groups as Hamas and Hizbullah.
But the Joint Chiefs commander played down the prospect of any U.S. strike on Iran. Mullen said the U.S. military, with a major presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, would find it difficult to sustain any campaign against Iran.
"From the U.S. military perspective, opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful on us," Mullen said. "That doesn't mean we don't have capacity or reserves. That would really be very challenging, and the consequences on that would be difficult to predict."
Mullen said the United States was concerned over Iran's threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, the passage for 30 percent of world oil shipping. But he said Iran could not keep the waterway closed for long.
"I believe that the ability to sustain that is not there," Mullen said.