Gates Puts Hopes on Diplomacy, not Military Action, to Deal with Iran

Defense Secretary Robert Gates today downplayed the likelihood of military action to strike at Iran's nuclear program, saying that the only way to ensure that Iran ends any quest to develop nuclear weapons is to convince its leadership that pursuing such a course is not in Iran's own interest.

"There is no military option that does anything more than buy time," Gates said on CNN's State of the Union. He repeated his view that Iran would have the capability to make a nuclear bomb in one to three years.

On the same program, Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said "you can only attack what you know exists."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said on CBS's Face the Nation that military action should be a "last resort" after all diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions fail.

Concern over Iran's nuclear plans was ratcheted up this week with revelations about a secret Iranian nuclear enrichment plant near the holy city of Qum.

The New York Times reported today that the Obama administration will demand that Iran open the site to international inspection "within weeks."

Gates said on ABC's This Week that "the hidden facility was "part of a pattern of deception and lies on the part of the Iranians from the very beginning with respect to their nuclear program...My personal opinion is that the Iranians have the intention of having nuclear weapons."

The defense secretary maintained that diplomatic pressure and the possibility of stiffer economic and other sanctions might have a better chance than previously because "the Iranians are in a very bad spot now because of this deception."

Opportunities exist over the next few weeks and at the Oct. 1 meeting in Geneva between a senior Iranian official and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany , to see if the U.S. and its allies can "leverage the Iranians to begin to make some concessions."

Gates said there is "a pretty rich list" of sanctions that can be imposed to increase the pressure on Iran, and on the question of timing, added that "I think we are all sensitive to the possibility of the Iranians trying to run the clock out on us. And so nobody thinks of this as an open-ended process" as far has how long the U.S. and its allies will wait.

He said Iran faces internal pressures with "fairly deep fissures" within the leadership and its society "that we haven't really seen since the revolution" that makes Iran more vulnerable to sanctions, he said.

Regarding Afghanistan, Gates said there still needs to be a period of review on the request by General Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan for more troops. "it's very important that we get this right," he said.

Gates said failure in Afghanistan would be "a huge setback for the United States." He said a victory by the Taliban and al Qaeda over a superpower, especially after the former Soviet Union's defeat in Afghanistan, would galvanize and re-energize supporters of those groups. He predicted that Afghanistan will not become a quagmire for the U.S., however. "I don't think so and I think with a general like McChrystal it won't become one," Gates said. "If we're not making progress we're prepared to adjust our strategy."

The Pentagon chief also acknowledged that the Obama administration is unlikely to meet its January goal for closing the Guantanamo detention center. "It has proven more complicated than anticipated," Gates said.