Expatica's German news in English: Military strike on Iran possible: terrorism expert
VIENNA - German terrorism expert Rolf Tophoven said in an Austrian newspaper interview Monday that military action against Iran could not be ruled out if present efforts failed to solve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.
He could not exclude the possibility of a so-called "pre-emptive strike" by the United States and Israel, he told the Viennese daily Heute. "Iran is deliberately turning the screw of escalation."
Tophoven, head of the Essen Institute of Terrorism Research and Security Policy, said that if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened the West, he meant it seriously.
"The man is dangerous," the researcher warned.
He doubted whether Ahmadinejad would react even if the opponents of the Iranian nuclear program formed a common front against him.
"If the efforts fail, I do not exclude U.S. air attacks, or a preventative strike by Israel," Tophoven said.
However, he warned that any military intervention would make Iran, even more so than before, a country which "fans the flames of international terror".
For Europe, the danger was far greater than for the United States, "because dozens of 'soft' targets in Europe can be attacked with less effort".
That would be typically selfish of Bush to take action, but that is not what he agreed to with Chancellor Angela Merkel, the problem is I would not want any harm to come to the EU for the United States errant ways. As I understood it, US would use Israel as its bulldozer, and that is what I have asked the EU to prevent.
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