Iran slams US general’s ‘thoughtless’ remarks

Tehran has moved to dismiss a warning by a top figure in the US military of a series of ‘contingency plans’ in dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.

“He has made thoughtless comments and it is better that any statement made in this regard take a constructive approach,” the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast as saying on Monday.

In the strongest hint of war in months, Head of US Central Command David Petraeus told CNN on Sunday that in addition to crippling sanctions and other diplomatic measures, Washington is also considering “contingency plans” against Iran’s nuclear installation.

“It would be almost literally irresponsible if CENTCOM were not to have been thinking about the various ‘what ifs’ and made plans for a whole variety of different contingencies,” said Petraeus in a break from the Obama administration’s oft-stated claims of diplomacy with Tehran.

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear pursuit.

After spearheading efforts to impose three rounds of unilateral sanctions against Iran, the US rallied its European allies, Britain, France and Germany — to coerce the UN Security Council to pressure Tehran into abandoning its program.

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is entitled to pursue nuclear technology for civilian purposes.

Under the Bush administration, Washington routinely threatened to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, but the military plans were largely put on hold when Barack Obama entered the oval office in 2009.