Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Debate Strategies on Iran, U.S. Nuclear Policy and Proliferation

By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential hopefuls last night covered Iran, nuclear weapons and proliferation in the earliest debate ever held in a race for the White House (see GSN, Jan. 22).

Senator Barack Obama (Ill.), one of the presumptive front-runners for party’s candidacy, said he supports pursuing terrorists “intelligently” but made it clear he does not support armed conflict with Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program.

In a previous interview on the CBS news program “60 Minutes,” Obama said “we should keep all options on the table” while stressing exploring diplomatic avenues first with Tehran.

In response to the accusation from Representative Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) that he was “setting the stage for another war,” Obama seemed to distance himself from that statement at last night’s forum at a South Carolina college.

“I think it would be a profound mistake for us to initiate a war with Iran,” he said.  “But have no doubt, Iran possessing nuclear weapons will be a major threat to us.”

While Iran contends its nuclear enrichment research, conducted in defiance of the U.N. Security Council, is for peaceful energy production, the United States and others say it is a bid for a nuclear-weapon capability.

“They’re in the process of developing it, and I don’t think that’s disputed by any experts,” Obama said.  “If we have nuclear proliferators around the world that potentially can place a nuclear weapon into the hands of terrorists, that is a profound security threat and one that we have to take seriously.”

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel called for the United States to “recognize” Iran.

Iran has been under U.S.-imposed sanctions for more than a quarter century and “we’ve scared the bejesus out of them when the president says they’re evil,” said the two-term senator and one-time taxi driver (see GSN, March 22).  “Well, you know something?  These things don’t work.”

He went on to call the United States the “greatest violator” of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.  The pact calls on the United States and all other nuclear powers to pursue disarmament at “an early date.”

“We signed a pledge that we would begin to disarm, and we’re not doing it.  We’re expanding our nukes.  Who the hell are we going to nuke?” he asked.  “Tell me Barack.  Who … who do you want to nuke?”

“I’m not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike, I promise you,” Obama replied.

Earlier in the debate Gravel said he was “frightened” by the “mainline” candidates, suggesting that when they say all options remain on the table with respect to Iran “that’s code for using nukes, nuclear devices.”

“I‘m president of the United States, there will be no pre-emptive wars with nuclear devices,” Gravel said.

Senator Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), seen as the other Democratic front-runner in the run-up to the 2008 election, did not offer any thoughts on the issue of Iran’s nuclear aspirations or the U.S. response.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.) during the debate called North Korea the most pressing threat to the United States (see related GSN story, today).

“Iran,” he said, is “not as big a threat, but a long-term threat.”

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former energy secretary and ambassador to the United Nations, said he would focus on dealing with the “real threats to America — international terrorism, nuclear proliferation” (see GSN, April 11).

Regarding increasingly tense U.S.-Russian relations, Richardson said, “No. 1, I want them to control some of the loose nuclear weapons in their domain.”

Kucinich, an unsuccessful presidential hopeful in 2004, said he intends to take the United States in a “different direction,” including “getting rid of all nuclear weapons.”

His agenda would also include “the United States participating in the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention, the small arms treaty, the land mine treaty, joining the International Criminal Court, [and] signing the Kyoto climate change treaty.”

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