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Bush Erroneously Says Iran Announced Desire for Nuclear Weapons •
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Iran a Nuclear Threat, Bush Insists
By Robin Wright
The Washington Post
Friday 21 March 2008
Experts say president is wrong and is escalating
tensions.
President Bush said Thursday that Iran has declared that it wants to be a nuclear
power with a weapon to "destroy people," including others in the Middle
East, contradicting the judgments of a recent U.S. intelligence estimate.
The president spoke in an interview intended to reach out to the Iranian public
on the Persian new year and to express "moral support" for struggling
freedom movements, particularly among youth and women. It was designed to stress
U.S. support for Iran's quest for nuclear energy and the prospects that Washington
and Tehran can "reconcile their differences" if Iran cooperates with
the international community to ensure that the effort is not converted into
a weapons program.
But most striking was Bush's accusation that Iran has openly declared its nuclear
weapons intentions, even though a National Intelligence Estimate concluded in
December that Iran had stopped its weapons program in 2003, a major reversal
in the long-standing U.S. assessment.
"They've declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people
- some in the Middle East. And that's unacceptable to the United States, and
it's unacceptable to the world," Bush told U.S.-funded Radio Farda, which
broadcasts into Iran in Farsi.
Experts on Iran and nuclear proliferation said the president's statement was
wrong. "That's as uninformed as [Sen. John] McCain's statement that Iran
is training al-Qaeda. Iran has never said it wanted a nuclear weapon for any
reason. It's just not true. It's a little troubling that the president and the
leading Republican candidate are both so wrong about Iran," said Joseph
Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation.
Others said it is unclear whether the president believes what he said or was
deliberately distorting Iran's position.
"The Iranian government is on the record across the board as saying it
does not want a nuclear weapon. There's plenty of room for skepticism about
these assertions. But it's troubling for the administration to indicate that
Iran is explicitly embracing the program as a means of destroying another country,"
said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran specialist at the State Department until last
year and now at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush was referring
to previous Iranian statements about wiping Israel off the map. "The president
shorthanded his answer with regard to Iran's previously secret nuclear weapons
program and their current enrichment and ballistic missile testing," Johndroe
said.
In two interviews beamed into Iran, Bush expressed deep respect for Iranian
history and culture. In a second interview with the Voice of America's Persian
News Network, Bush said: "Please don't be discouraged by the slogans that
say America doesn't like you, because we do, and we respect you."
But analysts warned that Bush's statement on Iran's nuclear intentions could
escalate tensions when U.S. strategy for the first time in three decades is
to persuade Iran to join international talks in exchange for suspending its
uranium enrichment, a process used for peaceful nuclear energy that can be converted
for use in a weapons program. "The bellicose rhetoric from one side only
produces the same from the other," Maloney said.
Signaling further pressure on Tehran, the administration also issued a warning
on Thursday to U.S. financial institutions about the dangers of doing business
with Iranian banks because of inadequate checks on money laundering and the
growing risks to the international financial system posed by Iran's financial
sector. "The government of Iran disguises its involvement in proliferation
and terrorism activities through an array of deceptive practices," the
Treasury Department said.
The advisory lists 59 major banks or their branches in cities such as Athens,
Hong Kong, London and Moscow. It includes Iran's Central Bank and covers many
banks not facing sanctions from the United Nations or the United States.
The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said that Iran's Central
Bank and commercial banks started asking that their names be removed from global
transactions to make it more difficult for intermediary financial institutions
to determine their true identity or origin.
The United States recently imposed new restrictions on dealings with Bahrain-based
Future Bank, which is controlled by Iran's Bank Melli.
"Over the past eight days, the U.S. government has undertaken a number
of steps to put Tehran on notice that the international community will not allow
the Iranian government to misuse the international financial system or global
transportation network to further its aspirations to obtain nuclear weapons
capability, improve its missile systems, or support international terrorism,"
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
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Staff writers Michael Abramowitz and William Branigin contributed
to this report.
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Bush Erroneously Says Iran Announced Desire for Nuclear Weapons
By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers
Thursday 20 March 2008
Washington - President Bush contended that Iran has "declared they
want a nuclear weapon to destroy people" and that the Islamic Republic
could be hiding a secret program.
Iran, however, has never publicly proclaimed a desire for nuclear weapons and
has repeatedly insisted that the uranium enrichment program it's operating in
defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions is for civilian power plants,
not warheads.
Bush made his assertion Wednesday in an interview marking the Iranian New Year
with Radio Farda, a U.S. government-run radio service that broadcasts into Iran
in the Farsi language. The White House released the transcript on Thursday.
The president reiterated his view that Iran has a right to civilian nuclear
power. But, he said, the low-enriched uranium fuel for its reactors should be
supplied by Russia, a proposal that Tehran has repeatedly rejected.
"The problem is the (Iranian) government cannot be trusted to enrich uranium
because one, they've hidden programs in the past and they may be hiding one
now. Who knows?" said Bush.
"Secondly, they've declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy
people, some in the Middle East. And that is unacceptable to the United States
and it's unacceptable to the world."
Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear warheads, and its supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious edict in 2005 forbidding the production,
stockpiling and use of such weapons.
Asked about the president's comment, Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman,
said Bush had "shorthanded" Iran's desire "to wipe Israel off
the map," its refusal to heed U.N. Security Council demands to suspend
its enrichment work and Iran's continued development of ballistic missiles.
Asked if Iran could exploit Bush's inaccurate comment for political purposes,
Johndroe replied: "I'm not concerned about that. If they want to spin it
a certain way, they can do it any way they want. They have still called for
Israel to be wiped off the map and are in violation of three U.N. Security Council
resolutions."
Speaking in October 2005 at a "World Without Zionism" conference,
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by state-run Iranian media
as saying that "Israel must be wiped off the map."
Some experts, however, disputed the translation, saying that Ahmadinejad's
comment couldn't be interpreted as a threat to use force against Israel.
Meanwhile, the State Department announced targeted new restrictions on a bank
in Bahrain, which is controlled by the Iran-based Bank Melli, and additional
scrutiny of any vessel calling at a U.S. port that has recently visited Iran.
It said Iran hadn't maintained "effective anti-terrorism measures"
at its ports.
"The international community will not allow the Iranian government to
misuse the international financial system or global transportation network to
further its aspirations to obtain nuclear weapons capability, improve its missile
systems or support international terrorism," State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack said.
The Treasury Department also warned U.S. banks that Iran is using "an
array of deceptive practices" to circumvent international financial sanctions.
The department said that it is "particularly concerned that the central
bank of Iran may be facilitating transactions for sanctioned Iranian banks."
In the Radio Farda interview, Bush said, "There's a chance that the U.S.
and Iran could reconcile their differences," but only if Iran verifiably
suspends its uranium enrichment program.
"The Iranian people have got to understand that the United States is going
to be firm in our desire to prevent the nation from developing a nuclear weapon,
but reasonable in our desire to see to it that you have a civilian nuclear program
. . . without enabling the government to enrich."
Enrichment produces both low-enriched uranium, which is used to fuel nuclear
power plants, and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, depending on
the duration of the process.
Iran kept its program hidden for 18 years until its disclosure by an Iranian
opposition group in 2002.
A December 2007 U.S. intelligence report said Iran halted work on nuclear weapons
four years earlier, but could restart it.
Tehran has refused to comply with three U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding
that it suspend the program while the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency
completes an investigation and institutes strict safeguards to ensure the project
isn't being used for weapons.
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