Law 4310 Passed in the US House and Conceivable Threats for Iran

“It shall be the policy of the United States to take all necessary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies or Iran’s neighbors with a nuclear weapon.”

The “National Defense Authorization Act,” abbreviated as H.R. 4310, is one of the budget bills for the fiscal year 2013 that was presented to the House of Representatives. This chamber approved it with 299 in favor, 120 against and 12 abstentions, and sent it on to the Senate. If approved by the Senate, this bill will be formally sent to the president as a law ready to go into effect.

In the law approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, the defense base budget is set at the equivalent of $554 billion, which will include spending by the Pentagon as well as spending connected to the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear defense activities. In addition to this, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the allocation of $88.5 billion for the war in Afghanistan and other foreign operations. Therefore all together, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved the allocation of $642.5 billion for the country’s military expenses in the year 2013.

In the U.S. National Defense Act, in addition to superficially regulating the country’s military spending, the emphasis has been placed once again on the power of the U.S. president to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists and move them to military detention facilities. But of more importance in this discussion is a section of this law dedicated exclusively to Iran — a section that justifies military action against Iran.

In the final paragraph of section 1221 of this bill, military action against Iran has is laid out as the policy of the U.S. government. “It shall be the policy of the United States to take all necessary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies or Iran’s neighbors with a nuclear weapon.”

In the second paragraph of section 1222, the bill again addresses the president of the United States and this country’s secretary of defense. “The President, as Commander in Chief, should augment the presence of the United States Fifth Fleet in the Middle East and to conduct military deployments, exercises, or other visible, concrete military readiness activities to underscore the policy of the United States described in section 1221(b).”

The Objectives of the United States in Passing the Law Against Iran

1. Having the Iranian nuclear negotiations become serious and using this law as leverage against Iran in order to pressure it into accepting the West’s conditions in the next round of negotiations — with the implication of that in the event of the negotiations’ not achieving a result, the military option will be in sight. In paragraphs 8 and 9 of section 1221, it reads: “Nevertheless, to date, diplomatic overtures, sanctions and other non-kinetic actions toward Iran have not caused the Government of Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program. With the impact of additional sanctions uncertain, additional pressure on the Government of Iran could come from the credible threat of military action against Iran’s nuclear program.”

2. Representing Russia’s plan and threats in the Middle East as insignificant. With regard to Medvedev’s recent statements concerning the military onslaught against the countries of the Middle East and the possibility of a nuclear war taking place in the region, the United States at least outwardly intends to indicate that it is acting on its decisions in a unilateral fashion.

3. Confronting the threat from Iran related to the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. A section of this law directly alludes to naval operations and drills for a confrontation with Iran in the case of the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. In the fourth paragraph of section 1222, the U.S. secretary of defense is addressed. “The plan shall include… conducting naval fleet exercises similar to the United States Fifth Fleet’s major exercise in the region in March 2007 to demonstrate ability to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and to counter the use of anti-ship missiles and swarming high-speed boats.”

Likewise, it is mentioned in the fourth paragraph of the same section. “The plan shall include… maintaining sufficient naval assets in the region necessary to signal United States resolve and to bolster United States capabilities to launch a sustained sea and air campaign against a range of Iranian nuclear and military targets, to protect seaborne shipping, and to deny Iranian retaliation against United States interests in the region.”

4. The approaching date of the West’s oil sanctions against Iran. For the West, reaching an agreement with Iran is also only slightly more costly than the cutting off of the oil exports and the following consequences. Therefore, from a U.S. point of view, the approval of this law could be leverage for the acceptance of the West’s conditions by Iran before the start of the sanctions.

5. Obama’s taking advantage of this law with the nearing of the 2012 presidential elections. Given that the Iranian issue is one of the hottest and most important topics of the election debates in the United States, including the Iranian issue in the law could hint at this point: the United States and Obama himself are determined to settle the Iranian issue, even by a military attack.

In connection to this very topic, it is written in the sixth paragraph of section 1221: “President Obama stated on Jan. 24, 2012, ‘Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal.’”

6. Securing Israel’s maximum security. With regard to one of the recent laws of the Congress that obliges the United States to protect Israel and ensure this country’s security in the Middle East, this law also takes on value in this very direction. In the third paragraph of section 1221, one of the motives that would force the United States to take military action is mentioned in this way. “With the assistance of Iran over the past several years, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas have increased their stockpiles of rockets, with more than 60,000 rockets now ready to be fired at Israel. Iran continues to add to its arsenal of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, which threaten Iran’s neighbors, Israel and United States Armed Forces in the region.”

Also, in the second paragraph it is written: “At the same time, Iran may soon attain a nuclear weapons capability, a development that would threaten United States interests, destabilize the region, encourage regional nuclear proliferation, further empower and embolden Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and provide it the tools to threaten its neighbors, including Israel.”