Cheney Advisor Wurmser: U.S. must 'escalate as far as we need to go to topple the regime' in Syria in order to destabilize Iran

Above: In the interview Wurmser suggests a situation such as Israel's attack on Hezbollah could serve as a pretext for attacking Syria (outrage over the death of 22 children in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon last July caused an end to hostilities). Newsweek also confirmed this month that David Wurmser had told associates of a Cheney plan to ask Israel to launch a missile strike on Iran, hoping that a retaliation from Tehran would provide the excuse for a U.S. attack on Iran.

America should seize every opportunity to force regime change in Syria and Iran, a former senior adviser to the White House has urged.

"We need to do everything possible to destabilise the Syrian regime and exploit every single moment they strategically overstep," said David Wurmser, who recently resigned after four years as Vice President Dick Cheney's Middle East adviser.

"That would include the willingness to escalate as far as we need to go to topple the regime if necessary." He said that an end to Baathist rule in Damascus could trigger a domino effect that would then bring down the Teheran regime...

Mr Wurmser, 46, a leading neo-conservative who has played a pivotal role in the Bush administration since the September 11th attacks, said that diplomacy would fail to stop Iran becoming a nuclear power. Overthrowing Teheran's theocratic regime should therefore be a top US priority...

A situation such as last year's attack on Israel by Hezbollah, which was backed by Iran and Syria, could provide an opportunity for US intervention...

Although Mr Wurmser's recommendations have not yet become US policy, his hard-line stances on regime change in Iran and Syria are understood to have formed the basis of policy documents approved by Mr Cheney, an uncompromising hawk who is deeply sceptical about the effectiveness of diplomatic pressure on Teheran.

Read the rest at the Daily Telegraph

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