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Bush: Diplomacy with Iran is best
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-14 08:38
The Bush administration on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to diplomacy
as the best way to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon while Israel's
leader ruled out a military strike to destroy Tehran's nuclear program.
The White House also sought to play down differences with Israel over the
urgency of the threat.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon contended Iran was years away from
possessing a nuclear weapon, but only months short of overcoming "technical
problems" in building one.
"Once they will solve it, that will be the point of no return," Sharon told
CNN two days after his meeting with US President Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney at Bush's Texas ranch.
In this photo made available by the Israeli
Government Press Office Wednesday April 13, 2005, Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, left, meets with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney at the
White House in Washington Tuesday April 12, 2005. Sharon discussed with
Bush administration officials concerns that leaders in both countries have
about Iran's purported nuclear threat, an Israeli official
said.[Reuters] | That is a darker assessment of
Iran's capabilities than U.S. officials have offered publicly. In addition,
White House press secretary Scott McClellan gave no indication Wednesday that
Bush was swayed by a presentation at the ranch from Sharon and his chief
military adviser, who brought Israeli intelligence documents on Iran's nuclear
reactor program.
Iran insists its nuclear program is strictly designed to produce only
electrical power.
The Israelis argued that Iran is nearing a "point of no return" in developing
a weapon that could be used against its declared enemy Israel, U.S. and Israeli
officials said after the meeting.
US President George W. Bush (R) and Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, seen here on April 11. US officials confirmed
that Iran's nuclear ambitions were discussed by Bush and Sharon at their
Texas summit. [AFP] | Sharon, asked in the television interview if he has ruled out a unilateral
military strike against Iran, said: "We don't think that's what we have to do.
... It's not that we are planning any military attack on Iran." He said Israel
did not need to take a leading role in attempts to deny nuclear weapons to Iran
and called again for an international coalition to deal with the issue.
Sharon had pressed the president to threaten Tehran with penalties, an
approach Bush favored until recently.
As part of Bush's second-term effort to repair ties with European allies, the
White House agreed last month to support arms control negotiations that three
European countries have begun with Iran. Those talks have not moved quickly, and
Sharon argued that European negotiators may be softening their stance.
"We want to see this resolved through the diplomatic efforts of the
Europeans. We want to see it resolved in a peaceful way," McClellan told
reporters on Wednesday.
At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher noted that U.S.
intelligence agencies, in assessing Iran's nuclear program, have used "an
estimate that said that Iran was not likely to acquire a nuclear weapon before
the beginning of the next decade. That remains the case."
He added, "We certainly understand Israel — other governments — are concerned
about nuclear developments in Iran, and we talk to many governments about it."
The latest U.S. assessment on Iran's nuclear program was laid out in March by
the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
"Unless constrained by a nuclear nonproliferation agreement, Tehran probably
will have the ability to produce nuclear weapons early in the next decade," Vice
Adm. Lowell Jacoby told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Jacoby told senators that Iran is probably "continuing nuclear weapon-related
endeavors in an effort to become the dominant regional power and deter what it
perceives as the potential for U.S. or Israeli attacks."
Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have said the United States has
no intention of attacking Iran, but have refused to take the option entirely off
the table.
Cheney has raised the possibility that Israel might make the first military
move if it became convinced that Iran had significant nuclear capability.
"Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the
destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the
rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterward," Cheney
said in a January interview with MSNBC.
In 1981, Israel launched a unilateral strike on a suspected Iraqi nuclear
site.
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