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Fox-News: â€œU.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Planâ€

12 September 2007 11:20 (UTC +04:00)

Germany â€” a pivotal player among three European nations to rein in Iranâ€™s nuclear program over the last two-and-a-half years through a mixture of diplomacy and sanctions supported by the United States â€” notified its allies last week that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel refuses to support the imposition of any further sanctions against Iran that could be imposed by the U.N. Security Council. Consequently, according to a well-placed Bush administration source, â€œeveryone in townâ€ is now participating in a broad discussion about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran, with the likely timeframe for any such course of action being over the next eight to 10 months, after the presidential primaries have probably been decided, but well before the November 2008 elections. The discussions are now focused on two basic options: less invasive scenarios under which the U.S. might blockade Iranian imports of gasoline or exports of oil, actions generally thought to exact too high a cost on the Iranian people but not enough on the regime in Tehran; and full-scale aerial bombardment./APA/