US Defense Secretary speaks out against military clash with Iran

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes that a military strike on
Iran would unite the Iranian people and convince Tehran of the
necessity to possess nuclear arms, RIA Novosti reports, citing
Reuters.

Gates says that international sanctions against Iran may become a
motive for serious disagreements between Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Gates'
comments, prepared for publication in the Wall Street Journal, say
that Khamenei has already started wondering whether Ahmadinejad is
telling him the truth about the influence of the sanctions on the
Iranian economy.

The USA and Western countries suspect Iran of developing nuclear
weapons against the background of peaceful nuclear power. Tehran
denies the accusations, insisting on the peaceful nature of its
nuclear program.

On December 5 Iran will have negotiations with the six mediators
(Russia, USA, China, UK, France, Germany), but the place of the talks
and the topics have not been clarified yet.

The six mediators, together with the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), have been trying to make Iran stop uranium enrichment
since 2003. The negotiations were stopped in 2009, when the IAEA spoke
out against Iran’s construction of a second uranium enrichment plant
and urged Iran not to construct any other nuclear facilities they did
not warn the agency about.