US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is seen as the best insurance that the Bush Admn will not leave a "legacy of ashes" in Iran, as the Pentagon boss is taking "pragmatic" steps to avoid a conflagration over the issue, a leading news magazine said in New York.
Quoting several former and current government officials who have conferred with Gates publicly and privately, Newsweek said he takes the conventionally accepted view that Iran should not be allowed to build nuclear weapons. He pointedly refuses to rule out military force while calling for more effective economic sanctions.
However, the news magazine said, he has also told associates that bombing Iran would create chaos in the oil region, unleash terrorism on Europe and possibly the United States, and serve to strengthen, not weaken, the fragile and fractious Iranian regime while only postponing for a year or two its nuclear ambitions.
To avoid that scenario, the report said, Gates has used his considerable bureaucratic skills to lower the temperature on Iran.
He has cautioned military commanders in the Gulf to guard against the risk of accidents that might give a provocation for war - the capture of a pilot, say, or a collision at sea.
In recent weeks, US commanders in Baghdad have intentionally sought to praise Tehran for being more cooperative in Iraq, the report said.
It quoted two separate sources as saying Gates has also pared down strike options against Iran, cutting the targets to its nuclear facilities alone. - DDNEWS
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