17:45GMT—1:45PM/EST
U.S. – IRAN – NUCLEAR
Washington, 2 July (IranVNC)—President George W. Bush today said that the United States must work with other nations to send a “focused message” to Iran and persuade it to cease uranium enrichment activities, adding that diplomacy remained the preferred approach to resolving Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.
Responding to a question on the possibility of an attack on Iran by the U.S. or Israel, Bush said: “I have always said that all options are on the table, but the first option for the United States is to solve this problem diplomatically.” The United States must “work with other nations to send a focused message” to Iran that it risks further economic isolation if it continues enrichment,” Bush told reporters at the White House today.
The President is heading to Japan on Saturday to attend the G-8 Summit next week.
Also today, the top US military commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, said a war with Iran would be “extremely stressful” on U.S. forces. Mullen said he believes Iran remains a destabilizing factor in the region. But he added, “I'm convinced that the solution still lies in using other elements of national power to change Iranian behavior, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure,” Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Mullen said: “There is a need for better clarity, even dialogue at some level.”
Tensions have risen between Iran and the West amid speculations that Israel may strike Iran if diplomacy fails to persuade the Islamic Republic to persuade to suspend enrichment. Reports that Israel conducted military exercises over the Mediterranean in early June prompted a response by the chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps who, on 29 June, threatened that, if attacked, Iran could restrict the flow of oil through the Hormoz passageway in the Persian Gulf.
But speaking at the U.N. earlier today, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said that the U.S. and Israel were not in a position to attack Iran.
“We [Iran] do not see America and the Zionist regime [Israel] in a condition to embark on such actions,” Mottaki was quoted by state-run radio and television, IRIB, as saying in New York, where he is attending a meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council. He rejected the possibility of an attack against Iran as “part of a propaganda war against Iran.”
Sources: White House Website, Reuters, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.