USCENTCOM’s “Theater Iran Near Term”(TIRANNT): Britain joins the United States in mock Iran invasion

By Global Research
Global Research, April 17, 2006
Aljazeera.com 15 April 2006
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Britain joins the United States in mock Iran invasion 4/15/2006 1:03:00 PM GMT

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) started in May 2003 to conduct what’s described as theater campaign analysis for a full scale military operation against Iran, responding to the Department of Defense directions to prepare for potential operations in the “near term,” according to The Washington Post.

The campaign analysis, called TIRANNT, for “theater Iran near term,” presents an Iraq-like maneuver war between U.S. and Iranian forces and includes lessons learned from March 2003 war on Iraq.

Yesterday, UK’s The Guardian reported that Britain took part in the U.S.’ war game aimed at preparing for an actual war against the Islamic Republic, currently facing repetitive threats from Washington, determined to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

Analysts suggest that this could imply that the British government could join its ally, the U.S., in another war in the region.

The latest revelation comes in contradiction to recent remarks made by the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, who dismissed reports warning against a possible war against Iran, saying that a military strike against the Islamic Republic is inconceivable.

According to The Guardian, the war game, codenamed Hotspur 2004, took place at the U.S. base of Fort Belvoir in Virginia in July 2004.

Attempting to play down the significance of The Guardian revelations, the Ministry of Defence spokesman said yesterday that “these paper-based exercises are designed to test officers to the limit in fictitious scenarios.

“We use invented countries and situations using real maps”.

Disclosing that Britain had participated in an American mock Iran Invasion at the moment is expected controversy over a possible British participation in a U.S. war on Tehran, with numerous media reports, on top of them was Seymour Hersh’s article, suggesting that Bush’s administration is finalizing plans to launch a wide scale military strike targeting Iran’s nuclear sites.

The Guardian report adds that Senior British officers took part in the Iranian war game, which focused on the Caspian Sea, just over a year after the invasion of Iraq, while a British medium-weight brigade operated as part of a U.S.-led force.

The target of the Hotspur, which took place at a time of accelerated U.S. planning after the fall of Baghdad for a possible conflict with Iran, was a Middle Eastern country codenamed Korona, which border corresponded with Iran.

The date of the invasion,  which is being planned by the U.S. Central Command, responsible for the Middle East and central Asia area of operations, and by Strategic Command, which carries out long-range bombing and nuclear operations, was set for 2015, according to The Guardian.

On its website MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, which helped run the mock Iran Invasion, described the war game as the “year’s main analytical event of the UK-U.S. Future Land Operations Interoperability Study” aimed at ensuring that both armies work well together.

The study “was extremely well received on both sides of the Atlantic,” it added.

William Arkin, a former army intelligence officer who first reported on the contingency planning for a possible strike against Iran in Washington Post, said: “The United States military is really, really getting ready, building war plans and options, studying maps, shifting its thinking.”

It’s been reported earlier this month that Iran has tested military hardware in a week of naval war-games, including a land-to-sea missile designed to sink ships in the Gulf, the route for about two-fifths of the world’s globally traded oil.

A well publicized article by Seymour Hersh that had been circulated among the world’s media outlets stated recently that the U.S. is planning to attack Iran, and that the Bush administration is considering using tactical nuclear weapons to knock down Iran’s nuclear facilities.

If this happened, the only possible way for the U.S. to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities is from the air, and that’s because most of Iran’s nuclear facilities are buried and spread in many of the country’s cities.

– Will Britain repeat the mistake of joining the U.S. in an unjustified war?
Articles by: Global Research

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