US commander rules out military strike against Iran

Nov 18, 2007, 12:15 GMT

Cairo - The chief of the US Central Command Admiral William Fallon reiterated Sunday remarks ruling out a possible strike against Iran and said Washington was mulling non-military options instead.

'There are concerns in the region over the Iran's behaviour and its radical talk that is constantly threatening other people. We are trying to find ways to work with other countries to get the Iranians to change their behaviour and to be more helpful,' Fallon told reporters in Cairo.

His remarks echoed those which he has made over recent days and weeks, most recently in a November 12 interview in the Financial Times.

Fallon arrived in Egypt to attend the multinational joint training exercise dubbed Bright Star 2007 which kicked off last weekend.

The Bright Star exercise involves troops from Egypt, the United States, France, Britain, Greece, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Kuwait, Yemen, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey.

Fallon described reports predicting a US strike on Iran as 'not very accurate.'

'My first objective is to try to encourage the atmosphere that will lead to a solution without military force,' he said.

But he cautioned Tehran not to misinterpret the US position.

'I don't want the Iranians to make a mistake and feel that we are afraid of them or not willing to stand up for things that we should do in this region,' Fallon said.

He added further that Gulf countries depend on US for their stability and security.

The US air force has bases in Gulf Arab countries, namely al-Udeid in Qatar, Ali al-Salem in Kuwait and the al-Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates, all of which lie just across the Gulf from Iran.

Al-Udeid is home to the forward headquarters of the US Central Command.

Iranian officials have threatened a strike against its Gulf Arab neighbours if those bases were to be used in a US offensive against Iran.

The US says Iranians have an array of medium-range missiles and warned that their long-range Shahab-3 missile has a reach of 2,000 kilometres, which would make its bases in the Gulf under threat.

Fallon said the US was not seeking more bases in the region, saying it was happy with the existing military facilities it has access to, which enabled it to support its operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.