Thursday, 17 February 2005Matthew Gutman
A reported missile attack near Iran's nuclear reactor Wednesday afternoon sparked confusion rather than war as Iranian officials offered conflicting versions on an explosion they ultimately agreed was "not hostile."
Nevertheless, the incident exposed raw nerves in a region still reeling from the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, a violence-ridden Iraq and growing concerns over Iran's nuclear capability.
The explosion occurred just hours after Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters that Iran would possess the know-how to construct a nuclear bomb within six months.
The apparent explosion, which occurred in the Deylan region, some 180 km. from the Shi'ite state's only official nuclear site, was "the result of detonating a path for dam-building operations," said Ali Agha Mohammadi, a spokesman of the Supreme National Security Council, according to the Associated Press.
Mohammadi said Iran's enemies were not in a position to attack Iran. "Such reports are mostly a psychological war," he said.
Earlier, Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, a spokesman for the Iranian Interior Ministry, explained that "an airplane flew over Dailam today. Minutes later, there was an explosion. But we have no reason to say it's a hostile attack. There is a big possibility that it was a friendly fire by mistake. Several such mistaken friendly fire incidents have been reported there in recent days." Iran revealed neither the type of plane over-flying southern Iran nor its mission. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The "fuel-tank theory," according to agencies quoting other Iranian officials, says that a jettisoned fuel tank tumbled to the earth near Deylan.
The Arabic-language Iranian Satellite TV station, Al-Alam, quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the missile hit the ground and exploded about 20 km. from Dailam. It also claimed that Iranian anti-aircraft systems fired at the plane.
Those flawed initial reports were enough to send tremors through some of the world's stock markets and spike the price of oil. US officials were quick to deny any involvement in the incident.
An apparently unfazed Defense Ministry waved off questions of whether or not Israel girded itself for a possible "counter-attack" Wednesday afternoon. In a bold 1981 attack, Israel successfully destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor outside Baghdad.
A source in the Defense Ministry said, "As soon as the first reports flooded the media, it was understood that it was not an Israeli missile and that this was not a serious incident." The ministry also understood that it was not the work of a covert US mission either, said a ministry source. It would not be the US's "style" to launch such an attack without meticulously planning public relations and diplomatic campaigns first, added the source.
Sources close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have long said that Israel preferred to let the US and Europe handle the Iranian threat, with diplomacy, if possible.
Iran's Russian-built 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor, its only nuclear power plant, is due to start operating in Bushehr province in late 2005 and will reach full capacity in 2006, Reuters reported.
Iran, which sits upon one of the largest oil reserves in the world, said it would protect its coveted nuclear reactors and would down any US attempts at surveillance, in a reference to the possible deployment of unmanned aerial drones from Kuwait or Iraq. |
Thursday, 17 February 2005
Jerusalem Post
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