Russian analyst points to link between Georgian attack and Iran

A senior Russian military analyst said on Wednesday that the U.S. and NATO by arming Tbilisi used the conflict in Georgia as a dress rehearsal for a future military operation in Iran.

Col. Gen Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, told a news conference at RIA Novosti, “We are close to a serious conflict - U.S. and NATO preparations on a strategic scale are ongoing. In the operation the West conducted on Georgian soil against Russia - South Ossetians were the victims or hostages of it - we can see a rehearsal for an attack on Iran. There is a great deal of “new features” that today are being fine tuned in the theater of military operations.”

He said the likelihood of a war against Iran was growing with each passing day, “As a result, the situation in the region will become destabilized,” and added “causing chaos and instability” was becoming Washington’s official policy line.

Ivashov said it was difficult to predict how other countries would react to a conflict with Iran, but according to him, “old Europe” would be reluctant for events to develop and to some degree would become Russia’s allies.

With regard to the Georgia-South Ossetian conflict, he said that one of the principal goals of NATO’s “geopolitical operation” was to neutralize Russia as a global player. RIA Novosti