Conventional weapons favoured

Dubai: It is called Tirannt and it is the plan the White House denies it has to attack Iran.

Tirannt (Theatre Iran Near Term) is based on the overwhelming use of conventional strikes, reminiscent of "Shock and Awe" used in Iraq in March 2003.

Washington war planners believe that nuclear weapons do not have to be used to destroy Iranian nuclear sites buried deep underground and the Pentagon believes that new "bunker-busting" conventional bombs, which weigh approximately 100kgs, would be able to penetrate concrete layers.

A stealth or B-52 bomber has the ability to attack between 150 and 300 individual points to within a metre of accuracy using the global positioning system and an operation, if ordered, would involve air power. A single raid could result in 10,000 targets being hit with warplanes flying from the United States or Diego Garcia.

Vague

With the criticism of failures of pre-Iraq war intelligence still echoing around Washington's corridors of power, the White House is adamant that it does not need to produce hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction to launch an attack.

The White House insists that any indication that Iran was developing nuclear weapons would justify an attack. Iran vehemently denies that it is developing nuclear weapons and insists that it has every right to develop a nuclear energy programme.

The White House has added another criteria that could result in the order to attack: If the US suffered a large-scale loss of life in Iraq due to Iranian involvement. Here it gets worryingly vague. What would constitute a large-scale loss of US lives? And just how would it prove that the Iranian government was involved?

Neoconservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, are urging President George W. Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is Vice-President Dick Cheney.