US considers Gulf naval forces build-up

The US Defence Department is thinking about a major build-up of US Navy forces in the Persian Gulf as a show of force against Iran, a senior defence official said today.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because the idea has not been approved, the official said one proposal is to send a second aircraft carrier to the region amid increasing tensions with Iran, blamed for encouraging sectarian violence in neighbouring Iraq as well as allegedly pursuing a nuclear weapons programme.

The United States and its European allies are seeking sanctions against Iran because of its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel for civilian purposes or fuel for a nuclear bomb.

In Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that UN sanctions would not stop Iran from pursuing its uranium enrichment program, which he has said is for peaceful development of energy.

The idea of building up US Navy forces has been discussed over some time and it is unclear when a decision will be made, the official said.

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight Eisenhower is already in the region. It left the United States in late September with four other ships and submarines carrying 6,500 sailors.

The flotilla headed to the Mediterranean Sea and eventually went to relieve the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise strike group, which was in the region supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also, the US in late October led a naval training exercise aimed at blocking smuggling of nuclear weapons in the Gulf.

The six-nation manoeuvres off the coast of Iran were the first of their kind since North Korea’s October 9 nuclear test and UN sanctions that called on the international community to conduct searches at sea to ensure the reclusive communist nation is not secretly expanding its nuclear programme.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration said yesterday that Iran is making headway in building nuclear weapons, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to iron out differences with Russia over a UN resolution designed to stop the program with economic sanctions.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Iranians were trying to perfect technology to enrich uranium.

The spokesman provided no details of Rice’s telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia, which has close economic ties with Iran, has favoured diplomacy over punitive sanctions, but the Bush administration is hoping Moscow may be prepared to approve a watered-down resolution at the UN Security Council.