Bush: Force not necessarily needed against Iran

updated 1:28 p.m. ET April 10, 2006

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Monday that force is not necessarily required to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon, and he dismissed reports of plans for a military attack against Tehran as “wild speculation.”

Bush said his goal is to keep the Iranians from having the capability or the knowledge to have a nuclear weapon.

“I know we’re here in Washington (where) prevention means force,” Bush said during an appearance at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “It doesn’t mean force necessarily. In this case it means diplomacy.”

Taking questions from the audience, Bush also made these points:

• He declassified part of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq in 2003 to show Americans the basis for his statements about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. “I wanted people to see the truth,” he told a questioner who said there was evidence of a concerted effort by the White House to punish war-critic Joseph Wilson. Bush said he could not comment on the CIA leak case because it is a matter under investigation.
• He intends to remain on the sidelines as Republicans choose their nominee for president in 2008. “I will be an interested observer,” said Bush. He said he would focus his energy on issues such as decreasing the nation’s reliance on foreign oil and finding answers to the solvency problems of Medicare and Social Security. “But I’m just going to let the politics run its course.”

Bush and other administration officials have said repeatedly that the military option is on the table, and White House officials acknowledge “normal” military planning is under way. Several reports published over the weekend said the administration was studying options for military strikes, and an account in The New Yorker magazine raised the possibility of using nuclear bombs against Iran’s underground nuclear sites.

Bush did not directly respond to that report but said, “What you’re reading is just wild speculation.”

But Bush said he was correct to include Iran in the “axis of evil” with Iraq and North Korea and that he’s glad to see other countries taking the threat from Iran seriously, too.

“I got out a little early on the issue by saying ‘axis of evil,”’ Bush said. “But I meant it. I saw it as a problem. And now many others have come to the conclusion that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon.”

MORE FROM MIDEAST & N. AFRICA

Mideast & N. Africa Section Front

Saudis bomb rebels, blockade Yemeni coast Imam wanted in Yemen over al-Qaida ties King Tut's tomb to get makeover Iran prosecutor accuses 3 Americans of spying Israeli prime minister calls for peace talks Vanished Persian army said found in desert Mideast & N. Africa Section Front   Add Mideast & N. Africa headlines to your news reader: