President Barack Obama
is prepared to give the order to strike Iran to prevent it from getting a
nuclear weapon if sanctions and international pressure prove ineffective, said
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who just
returned from a whirlwind trip around the region.
"[Obama] is definitely capable of ordering a military strike
on Iran's nuclear facilities," Lieberman told The Cable in a Friday interview. "Do I know that he will? No. But
the Iranians and others will be foolishly mistaken if they assume that he will
not in any circumstance order a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if the
sanctions don't work."
"I don't know that the president will order a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities even if the
sanctions don't work, but I know that he's capable of doing that and I believe
he's prepared to do that," he said, adding that he doesn't think Obama would
ever send ground troops to Iran.
Over the New Year's break, Lieberman visited Israel, Iraq,
Tunisia, and Libya, and he said Iran was the number one concern of leaders in
the region. In previous meetings, Israeli officials had focused almost entirely
on U.S. red lines and their concern over whether Obama would really attack Iran
if push came to shove, emphasizing that Israel would attack if the United States
doesn't. But now the Israeli government seems more willing to let the sanctions
strategy run its course, Lieberman said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
in an interview this week that Iran is beginning to show signs of cracking
under the international sanctions regime.
"Not only do the Israelis believe the U.S. and the
international community has to go through every economic effort to change the
mind of the Iranian leadership, but now they believe it might actually work.
They believe that the economic sanctions are having an effect on the Iranian
economy and beginning to have an effect on the regime," he said.
Lieberman himself doesn't believe that the Iranian regime
will ever transform into a constructive member of the world community, but he
holds out hope that the sanctions, due to their effect on the Iranian people,
could force the regime to rethink its strategy.
"The only thing the Iranian government cares more about than
the development of their nuclear weapons is the survival of the regime," he
said.
The Obama administration has been adamant that regime change
per se is not the goal of U.S. sanctions. On Wednesday, a Washington Post article
initially quoted an anonymous U.S. official as saying "regime change" was the
goal, but then was quickly corrected to say "public ire" was the sanctions' goal,
not regime change. Today, a U.S. official told
AFP that the goal of the sanctions was to "close down" the Central Bank of Iran
(CBI).
When the Menendez-Kirk amendment -- which imposed sanctions
on the CBI and eventually became U.S. law -- came up the Senate, the
administration resisted
the measure, warning it could harm the U.S. economy and aid Iran's economy.
These days, the administration has changed its stance and is now embracing the
sanctions.
Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner traveled to Japan and China this week to encourage them to cut off
their dealings with the CBI, and the State Department instructed all of its
ambassadors to meet with their host governments to explain the new law and
express the administration's intention to enforce it.
Back in Washington, pro-sanctions senators aren't taking any
chances that the administration might back off its newer, tougher stance
vis-à-vis Iran. Congress is encouraging
the EU to implement a full oil embargo, and the Senate plans to bring up a
new round of Iran sanctions legislation for consideration as early as next
month.
Lieberman and Sen. Lindsey
Graham (R-SC) also plan to introduce a new Senate resolution to express the
sense of Congress that a containment strategy for Iran that falls short of
doing everything possible to stop the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear
weapon is unacceptable.
"Now the Iranians are clearly hurting. We have to make clear
to them that if they don't respond to the economic and diplomatic pressures,
that containment is not an option. We're not going to just sit there and let
them become a nuclear power," Lieberman said about his forthcoming resolution.
"I think is a way for Congress of saying with all the options on the table,
containment cannot be one [of the options]."
But isn't the Senate's action also directed at the Obama
administration, to make it clear to the White House that Congress does not
accept a containment strategy for a nuclear Iran?
"Yes, exactly," Lieberman said. "But the first target of the
resolution is Iran."
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