Secretary Rice on the Threat to Iran

William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security

On the Today Show this morning, Matt Lauer asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice if the President was saying last night that military action inside Iran and Syria is a possibility.

Here is the exchange:


SECRETARY RICE: The President is saying that we are going to make certain that we disrupt activities that are endangering and killing our troops and that are destabilizing Iraq.

QUESTION: If that includes attacks inside Iran and Syria is that on the table?

SECRETARY RICE: Matt, obviously the President is not going to take options off the table and I'm not going to speculate, but I will tell you this. Around Christmastime we did find a group of Iranians who were engaged in activities that were detrimental to our forces. We went, we took them, we then told the Iraqi Government that they needed to be expelled from the country and they were. The Iranians need to know, and the Syrians need to know, that the United States is not finding it acceptable and is not going to simply tolerate their activities to try and harm our forces or to destabilize Iraq.

(Rice originally said Iraqis, but the State Department has issued a correction.)

As I said last night, I'm still not saying that war with Iran (or Syria) is imminent, but clearly the Vice President's office and the hardliners scored a major victory in conveying the threat rather than following a kinder, gentler diplomatic route.

By William M. Arkin | January 11, 2007; 9:00 AM ET