Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt Are Upcoming U.S. Targets: Newsweek

NEW YORK, August 14 (IslamOnline & News Agency) - In a new episode of the U.S.-led so-called “war on terrorism”, and while still wrangling over how to attack Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration is already looking for other targets.

President Bush has already called for the ouster of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and now some in his administration - and allies at Washington think tanks-are eyeing Iran and even Saudi Arabia, the New York based newsmagazine, Newsweek, reported in its latest issue.

The magazine quoted one senior British official saying that “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”

In a statement broadcast in Iran in mid-July, Bush promised unspecified U.S. “support” to “Iran’s people” as they “move toward a future defined by greater freedom.”

While the Iranian government promised not to give shelter to terrorists, early this month, a top Bush aide said the current regime - both the elected government of reformist Mohammed Khatami was ineffectual.

Speaking to an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs, National Security Council aide Zalmay Khalilzad did not call outright for a regime change in Iran, but didn’t argue when a questioner asserted that this was the policy’s aim.

Richard Perle, chairman of Bush’s Defense Policy Board, recently invited a controversial French scholar to brief the outside advisers on “taking the Saudi out of Arabia.” When word leaked to the press, the Bush administration strongly denied it wanted to oust the Saudi royal regime.

Still, some insiders continue to whisper about the possibility. Syria and even Egypt are now under discussion in neo-conservative circles, along with North Korea and Burma, Newsweek reported.

“The thinking in the American administration is really evolving toward the(alleged) idea of promoting democracy and regime change - an overhaul of the Arab and Islamic world, rather than dealing with it as it is,” says Kenneth Katzman, a leading expert on Iran who works with the Congressional Research Service.

Some military strategists worry that the talk of overthrowing other nations could jeopardize any invasion of Iraq. Tony Blair, the only foreign leader who might join in a U.S. attack on Iraq, is asking tough questions.

“He wants to know a lot more about what the administration’s real agenda is,” says a top Blair aide. Some Iraq-invasion scenarios under review have U.S. carriers steaming into the narrow Persian Gulf - a place where they’d be vulnerable to missile strikes from Iranian shore batteries.

Richard Murphy, a former top State Department official dealing with the Middle East, warns the United States could lose Iran as a needed ally. “They will be pretty cautious about putting their hands firmly in ours, knowing we have a knife headed for their back.”

While the American administration seems involved in controlling the Arab and Islamic area, new tactics are being discussed to monitor the oceans as well.

The idea of widening the scope of ship interdictions started in the Arabian Sea in November is the largest and latest in a wide effort by a number of U.S. government agencies to get more control over the vast and poorly documented movement - legal and illegal - of people and commerce on ships, officials said.

Over the months, more than 100 ships from allies, including Australia, Britain, Italy, Germany and Japan, have taken part in the operation, which also monitors movement in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and waters around Africa, Newsweek reported.

Under current operations, coalition ships contact approaching vessels by radio or other signals and ask them to identify themselves and their cargo. Most are allowed to go on their way. Coalition forces stop and board a vessel if the crew acts suspicious, the vessel has varied its route or coalition forces have prior intelligence about it, among other factors.

Forces have queried well over 16,000 crews and boarded nearly 200 vessels so far.