29 August 2007
US President George W. Bush has raised the specter of a "nuclear Holocaust" in the Middle East if Iran obtains nuclear weapons capabilities. Bush also demanded that Tehran end its support for extremists in Iraq. "Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran's regime, to impose economic sanctions," he told the American Legion veterans group in Reno. “We will confront this danger before it is too late," he promised.
Shortly before, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran and neighboring countries were ready to fill the "power vacuum" emerging in the Middle East. "You [the United States] cannot preserve your power over Iraq with a few tanks, artillery and weapons. Today, you are prisoners of your own quagmire. You have no choice but to accept the rights of the Iraqi people. "I can tell you there will be a power vacuum in the region. We are ready with other regional countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and the people of Iraq, to fill this vacuum."
Washington has been pushing for tougher measures against Iran, but Ahmadinejad said Iran was now cooperating so well with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that more UN sanctions were unlikely.
"Not one member of the IAEA has cooperated as well as Iran. So from our point of view, Iran's nuclear case is closed. Iran is a nuclear nation and has the nuclear fuel cycle," he claimed.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat
