Bush: Iran, was, Iran is and Iran will be a danger to the world, and all options remain on the table

Bush: Iran, was, Iran is and Iran will be a danger to the world, and all options remain on the table

December 4, 2007, 5:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
Bush fends off hostile media questions on about-turn on Iran

Bush fends off hostile media questions on about-turn on Iran

The US president stressed that the combination of international pressure and a diplomatic way forward worked in the past and must be applied today more than ever, because Iran had a covert nuclear military program until 2003 – when Ahmadinejad came along – and “what’s to say they couldn’t start another program.” In this way, Bush fended off hostile media questions at his White House briefing Tuesday, Dec. 4, about his about-turn following the new US intelligence estimate that Iran had put its weapons program on hold in 2003.

One correspondent asked: Aren’t you afraid of losing credibility as the boy who cried wolf? Another: Won’t people say you hyped up the Iranian threat?

The US president said he was only briefed on the latest NIE last week and he then decided that people should known the facts and that there should be a re-evaluation of the Iranian initiative by his administration.

DEBKAfile’s military sources: The US president can hardly believe that Iran’s civilian and military programs are not integrated and mutually supportive for the ultimate objective of a nuclear bomb. Even he made the point that Iran is still testing ballistic missiles, trying to enrich uranium and has never to this day exposed its covert military program.