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Mensaje: <blockquote data-quote="Bushmaster" data-source="post: 3681" data-attributes="member: 86">LONDON (Reuters) - A military strike against Iran is not on the agenda and the United States is committed to a negotiated solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Sunday.The idea that Washington could launch a nuclear strike against Iran was "completely nuts," Straw said in an interview on BBC television.Straw was responding to a report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine that the U.S. administration was stepping up plans for a possible air strike on Iran. The White House, without denying the report, reiterated that it was pursuing a diplomatic solution to the nuclear row.The report said the U.S. administration was seriously considering using "bunker buster" tactical nuclear weapons against Iran to destroy its main centrifuge plant.Military action against Iran was "not on the agenda," Straw said."They (the Americans) are very committed indeed to resolving this issue ... by negotiation and by diplomatic pressure. And what the Iranians have to do is recognize they have overplayed their hand at each stage ...," he said.Straw said Britain, Washington's closest European ally, would not accept a pre-emptive strike against Iran, adding: "I am as certain as I can be sitting here that neither would the United States."Circumstantial evidence added up to a "high suspicion" that Iran was developing a civil nuclear capability that could be used for nuclear weapons, he said."But let's be clear: There is no smoking gun ... We can't be certain about Iran's intentions and that is therefore not a basis on which anybody would gain authority for military action," he said.But if Iran were to attack Israel or to attack or threaten its neighbors, "that's a very different circumstance," Straw said, adding that Israel would have a right to self-defence if attacked.Iran insists it only wants nuclear technology for power generation. Washington believes Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb and refuses to rule out an attack to deal with what it says is one of the biggest threats to regional stability.Bush critics express alarm over reports of possible strike against IranWASHINGTON (AFP) - Critics of the George W. Bush administration expressed alarm about explosive new reports that the president is mulling military options to knock out Iran's nuclear programRetired General Anthony Zinni, the former head of US Central Command, told US television Sunday that he had no detailed knowledge of the alleged military plans, but he suggested a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear program would be extremely risky."Any military plan involving Iran is going to be very difficult. We should not fool ourselves to think it will just be a strike and then it will be over," said Zinni."The Iranians will retaliate, and they have many possibilities in an area where there are many vulnerabilities, from our troop positions to the oil and gas in the region that can be interrupted, to attacks onIsrael, to the conduct of terrorism," he said.Zinni made his remarks after the publication of a pair of reports this weekend saying that the administration is seriously considering military action against Iran, amid a stalemate in diplomatic efforts.Democratic Senator John Kerry[/CENTER]One of the administration's most outspoken critics, assailed the White House for being unable to deftly use international diplomacy as a political tool, and for a too-ready reliance on military might."That is another example of the shoot-from-the-hip, cowboy diplomacy of this administration."For us to think about exploding tactical nuclear weapons in some way is the height of irresponsibility. It would be destructive to any non-proliferation efforts and the military assessment is, it would not work," he told NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.SALUDOS</blockquote>

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