U.S. won't rule out Iran strike; France touts new nuclear sanctions

Military force would have only limited effect in stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons but must remain an option, the top U.S. military officer said Monday.

"Tehran shows no signs of backing down in the standoff over what the United States and other countries say is its drive for a nuclear bomb," Adm. Mike Mullen, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told his staff in an annual assessment of the nation's risks and priorities.

"My belief remains that political means are the best tools to attain regional security and that military force will have limited results," Mullen wrote. "However, should the president call for military options, we must have them ready."

On Monday, Republican Sen. John McCain voiced support for attempting economic pressure against Iran before considering military action. "Sanctions have to be tried before we explore the last option," he said on ABC television.

But McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wondered whether other countries such as Israel have the patience to see if sanctions will work.

Mullen, the president's chief military adviser, had said separately on Sunday that he is worried about Iran's intentions and said the clock is running on Obama's offer of engagement.

"I've said for a long time we don't need another conflict in that part of the world, he told reporters traveling with him on a visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. I'm not predicting that would happen, but I think they've got to get to a position where they are a constructive force and not a destabilizing force."

Also on Monday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the international community has no other choice than to impose new sanctions on Iran for Tehran's refusal to cooperate on its nuclear program.

Kouchner said Russia was already on board with the need for sanctions, and that he believed the Chinese will follow.

"I think there is no other solution," Kouchner told journalists. "The exact nature of the sanctions was still under discussion," he said, but added that they would be specific.

"The wealthy will be hit," Kouchner said, implying that measures to restrict access to funds outside Iran were under consideration. He also said that sanctions would be difficult to put in place.

The United States has given Iran an informal deadline of the end of the year to demonstrate that it is seriously willing to discuss its nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council is not expected to discuss the issue of possible sanctions until January.

Kouchner also expressed his continued support for the Iranian opposition movement.

"I believe deeply in the importance of this movement," he said, adding that the "opposition had been urging the international community to do more to support its efforts."

In addition to Iran's nuclear program, Kouchner said France would not consider a prisoner exchange with Tehran to allow young French academic Clotilde Reiss - who was arrested in Iranian postelection protests - to return home.

"It is out of the question ... We will not exchange anything," Kouchner said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has hinted at a prisoner exchange to resolve the issue.

An Iranian convicted in the killing of Shapour Bakhtiar, a former Iranian prime minister turned exiled opposition leader, is imprisoned in France.

Kouchner said Reiss is a "hostage .... she is innocent."

U.S. Senator John McCain echoed Kouchner's comments Monday, when the Arizona Republican told television network ABC that sanctions "have to be tried before we explore the last option, like a military attack."

Meanwhile, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator called for a global nuclear weapons ban on Monday but insisted all nations - including his own - have a right to develop nuclear energy.

Visiting Tokyo to meet with senior Japanese officials, Saeed Jalili insisted that his country's nuclear program is for civilian purposes, although the U.S. and other nations fear its goal is to produce weapons.

"The crime that was committed in Hiroshima must never be repeated," Jalili told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, referring to the United States' dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II. "A global determination must be made to disarm all nations with these weapons."