Bush warned against attacking Iran

The Bush administration has been accused of creating a "false sense of urgency about a nuclear menace" from Iran. In a leading article on Saturday, the New York Times warned that current hardline talk about Iran's connections to terrorists, criticism of European diplomatic efforts at appeasement of a "rogue" regime, plus Colin Powell's "ominous-sounding warnings about new intelligence which turns out to be dubious," were reminiscent of how America was rushed into an "unnecessary conflict with Iraq." The editorial said, "Let's be clear-eyed about this: Iran has an active nuclear programme, has not tried terribly hard to hide it and has been dishonest in its dealings with the West. But nothing we have seen suggests some new, urgent development in Iran that would impel American officials to start talking about ?the military option.' In fact, the most recent developments have been encouraging. Last week, under the threat of a looming UN deadline, Tehran said it would freeze all uranium and plutonium processing and invite back international inspectors.  It was a welcome step, resulting from efforts by Britain, France and Germany, and signalled that even the hardliners in Tehran are susceptible to economic appeals." [more]