Gates: Iran causes chaos ‘everywhere’ it turns

updated 8:04 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2007

MANAMA, Bahrain - Pentagon chief Robert Gates lashed out at Iran on Saturday for seeking to cause chaos “everywhere you turn” regardless of the blood spilled and said its neighbors must demand that Tehran renounce any intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.

At the same time, the defense secretary endorsed the idea of setting up an independent consortium that, under controlled circumstances, would give countries access to uranium enrichment for civil or development purposes. That process can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or a weapon.

“We ought to be thinking creatively about how the international community could provide such a thing,” Gates said at a global security conference marked by the abrupt pullout of Iranian officials.

In his speech, Gates appealed to Persian Gulf nations to support penalties designed to force Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment. Those nations, he said, also should demand that Iran “openly affirm that it does not intend to develop nuclear weapons in the future.”

Iran says its program is aimed at using nuclear reactors to generate electricity. Tehran has rebuffed U.S. demands that it cease enrichment, saying it has a right to do so under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Audience divided over U.S. stance
Speaking to a divided group of national leaders and security officials, Gates said Gulf countries must pressure Iran to come clean about its nuclear activities. He said Iran delivers arms to terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, continues to develop long-range missiles that could carry weapons of mass destruction, and supports Hezbollah, Hamas and other militant organizations.

Members of the audience challenged his rebukes of Tehran, evidence of the divide among Arab nations over the Bush administration’s tough stance. Asked if the U.S. would be willing to talk with Iran, Gates said the behavior of Iran’s current leadership “has not given one confidence that a dialogue would be productive.”

“Everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to foment instability and chaos, no matter the strategic value or cost in the blood of innocents — Christians, Jews and Muslims alike,” Gates said in his address at the event organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“There can be little doubt that their destabilizing foreign policies are a threat to the interests of the United States, to the interests of every country in the Middle East, and to the interests of all countries within the range of the ballistic missiles Iran is developing,” he said.

Study: Iran halted nuke weapons program
A U.S. intelligence estimate released this past week concluded that Iran actually had stopped atomic weapons development in 2003. That was in stark contrast to a 2005 estimate that said Tehran was continuing its weapons development.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton lashed out at the new report, telling a German magazine, "This is politics disguised as intelligence."

The principal deputy director of national intelligence for the U.S. released an unsolicited statement Saturday defending the latest assessment. “The task of the intelligence community is to produce objective, ground truth analysis. We feel confident in our tradecraft and resulting analysis in this estimate,” Donald M. Kerr said.

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