FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2002
Rumsfeld predicts early overthrow of Iran govt
AFP
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has predicted an early violent overthrow of the Iranian government, or its collapse amid mounting problems and internal strife.
But the forecast, made on Wednesday during a radio call-in show, came in response to a question on whether the administration of President George W Bush planned to move on to Iran after achieving its goal of "regime change" in Iraq.
Therefore, it appeared to suggest that the Bush administration saw no need to resort to overt or covert military measures to topple the regime in Tehran because it expected it to collapse under its own weight.
"I suspect that during my lifetime we're going to see change in that situation over there and that the young people and the women and the people who believe in freedom will overthrow that cleric government and it will fall in some way of its own weight," Rumsfeld said on The Mike Gallager Show.
The defence secretary, called Iran "an interesting place" controlled by "a very small clique of clerics."
"And the women and the young people don't agree with how it's being run," he insisted.
Iranian officials have been expressing heightened concern that if Washington decides to invade Iraq and maintain its military presence in Afghanistan, their country will end up sandwiched between two sizable contingents of US troops.
Iranian Defence Minister Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani aired these worries earlier on Wednesday when he warned Iranians to be prepared for the possibility of a US attack.
"The US government wants to reorganise the region and as a consequence Iran could constitute a target," he has said.
Copyright 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.