US incapable of carrying out a strike against Iran: Analyst

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday that US President Barack Obama's national security adviser briefed Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the plan during his visit to Tel Aviv two weeks ago.

Citing a senior American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the report said Donilon has assured the Israeli premier that the US “is seriously preparing for the possibility that negotiations will reach a dead end and military action will become necessary.”

Donilon also shared information on US weaponry and military capabilities for dealing with Iran's nuclear facilities.

Last week, Secretary of US Air Force Michael Donley said the force’s new bunker buster bombs, each weighing 15 tons, were ready to be used in an attack.

According to the report, these bombs are intended for fortified bunkers deep underground where chemical or nuclear weapons are stored.

Washington and Tel Aviv have repeatedly threatened Tehran with a military strike to force it to halt its nuclear energy program, claimed by the duo to have been diverted towards military purposes.

But Iran has dismissed the allegations and the threats, pledging a crushing response to any attack on its soil.

An interview with Mohammad Marandi, professor at the University of Tehran, to further discuss the issue.

Q: I’d like to ask you your assessment of such news coming out about preparations for a military strike on Iran especially in context of the upcoming November elections in the US?

Marandi:There is nothing really new in this report. The United States has always said that all options are on the table and that it has prepared plans to strike Iran if they deem it necessary.

    But I think what is important really is that the United States knows quite well that the Iranian military deterrence is very powerful and contrary to what you often see in the Western media it seems clear that the Americans do take the Iranian military threat to American forces and the Persian Gulf region very seriously.

After all, the American Navy is very vulnerable to Iran’s missile defense. Iran has naval and land based capabilities through which they could strike at these American forces very rapidly.

    And of course if there is conflict, the price of oil would really go through the roof and the countries that would hurt first are Western countries and of course the United States would be blamed by the international community for aggression.

So the Americans really cannot win in any military conflict.

Q: So then professor, what purpose does such news serve then? Is it just to appease the Israelis essentially?

Marandi: Obviously it does not serve any purpose just like the really barbaric sanctions on Iran and the embargo imposed by Western countries, the United States and the Europeans which is an attempt to strangle the Iranian economy and make ordinary Iranians suffer.

It only makes people in Iran hostile towards the United States just like American drone strikes in Somali and Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries create anger and hostility in Yemen towards the American regime.

    The Americans are an arrogant power on the decline and they are behaving in an increasingly irrational manner. So they are only creating greater hostility for themselves whether it is to appease the Israelis or it is to frighten Iranians, really does not make much of a difference.

The point is that if they had the capability to strike at Iran without facing various severe consequences, they would have already done this a long time ago.