From: ![Antara News]()
, 6 December 2008
Washington, (ANTARA News/Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Friday that Iran's nuclear program remained a threat to peace and the United States would not allow Tehran to develop an atomic weapon.
In a speech to the Saban Forum, Bush struck a hopeful tone about prospects for social, economic and diplomatic progress in the Middle East, but criticized Iran and Syria.
The United States under Bush's presidency, which ends Jan. 20, has pressed the United Nations for more sanctions to convince Iran to halt its nuclear program which the West suspects is to build weapons, a charge that Tehran denies.
President-elect Barack Obama has also said that it is unacceptable for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
The West has offered Iran diplomatic and economic incentives to suspend uranium enrichment and would support a civilian nuclear power program, Bush said.
"While Iran has not accepted these offers, we have made our bottom line clear: For the safety of our people and the peace of the world, America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said.
Amid signs of political, economic and social reforms in the Middle East, serious challenges remain, he said.
"Iran and Syria continue to sponsor terror. Iran's uranium enrichment remains a major threat to peace. Many in the region still live under oppression," he said.
Bush defended his decision to go to war against Iraq in March 2003 and topple Saddam Hussein, saying that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the United States could not risk the threat Baghdad posed.
"It is true, as I've said many times, that Saddam Hussein was not connected to the 9/11 attacks," Bush said.
But the United States had to decide whether it could tolerate an enemy that supported terrorism and was believed to have weapons of mass destruction, and found "that was a risk we could not afford to take."
Weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion and that is considered a major intelligence failure. In a recent television interview Bush said the faulty intelligence on Iraq was the biggest regret of his presidency.
"Iraq has gone from an enemy of America to a friend of America, from sponsoring terror to fighting terror, and from a brutal dictatorship to a multi-religious, multi-ethnic constitutional democracy," Bush said.
He acknowledged that efforts sometimes fell short, saying "the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected. The reluctance of entrenched regimes to open their political systems has been disappointing."
Bush said that despite setbacks to Middle East peace such as the Hamas election victory and takeover of the Gaza Strip, the process had moved forward.
"And while the Israelis and Palestinians have not yet produced an agreement, they have made important progress," said Bush, who had hoped for a Mideast pact before he left office.
"They have laid a new foundation of trust for the future."(*)
