Bush Urges Iran to Freeze Nuclear Activity Promptly

U.S. President George W. Bush is content for the moment to allow European nations the opportunity to try to resume nuclear negotiations with Iran, but he hopes the crisis can be resolved “sooner rather than later,” he told the Wall Street Journal yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 28).

EU and Iranian officials ended two days of talks yesterday without reaching agreement on how to resume negotiations to find a long-term resolution to the crisis.  The United States has said Iran must suspend its uranium enrichment activities before U.S. diplomats will join any talks.

Asked if he were willing to wait to the end of the year for Iran to freeze its sensitive nuclear activities, Bush replied, “I certainly hope not.”

“I talked to the secretary of state about this very subject this morning, who agrees with me that we ought to give the Europeans time to see whether or not the Iranians will make the proper choice about verifiably suspending, and at the same time, she assures me that she’s working with them to make sure that this process cannot go on forever,” he said.

Bush said Iran should freeze its nuclear activities rapidly.

“My judgment is, sooner rather than later, to make sure that these discussions are not their attempt to stall their way into us losing our interest in the subject,” he said (Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 28).

This week’s EU-Iran talks made little progress, but did narrow the dispute down to a question of how to order the talks and an Iranian nuclear suspension, officials said.

“It is now a question of sequencing,” one European diplomat told the New York Times.  “This is about Iran specifically agreeing to when it will start suspending its uranium enrichment program” (Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune/New York Times, Sept. 29).

The U.S. House yesterday passed a bill by voice vote to impose mandatory economic sanctions against companies and countries that assist any Iranian efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, the Associated Press reported.

Supporters of the Iran Freedom Support Act said they hoped the Senate would pass similar legislation before the Congress begins its electoral recess tomorrow, but they acknowledged that Senate Democrats could slow the process, AP reported.

“It would be a critical mistake to allow a regime with a track record as bloody and as dangerous as Iran to obtain nuclear weapons,” said bill sponsor Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.).  “Enough with the carrots.   It’s time for the stick.”

Representative Tom Lantos (R-Calif.) concurred.  “If we fail to use the economic and diplomatic tools available to us, the world will face a nightmare that knows no end,” he said.

Some Democrats, however, argued that the measure could interfere with international diplomacy.

“It is, if you will, a cruise missile aimed at a difficult diplomatic effort just as they are reaching their most sensitive point,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.).  “The timing for this legislation could not be worse” (Jim Abrams, Associated Press/Republican American, Sept. 29).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.