US President George W Bush warned on Thursday that allowing Iran to obtain a atomic bomb would be “an unforgivable betrayal” as he made his second visit to Israel in five months.
“Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations,” Bush said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Israeli parliament.
“America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions,” he said.
Washington has spearheaded efforts at the United Nations to rein in Iran’s ambitions to master the nuclear fuel cycle, accusing Tehran of seeking to build atomic weapons.
It has also taken a strong position against Hizbullah, whose power in Lebanon has been sharply boosted by days of deadly clashes with the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
As he joined celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Iran’s arch foe Israel, Bush hit out in particular at his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“The fight against terror and extremism is the defining challenge of our time. It is more than a clash of arms. It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle,” he was to tell MPs.
“And that is why the president of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.”
Bush said he hoped Hizbullah’s main regional sponsors, Iran and Syria, would then be “peaceful nations, where today’s oppression is a distant memory and people are free to speak their minds and develop their talents.
“And al-Qaeda, Hizbullah and (Palestinian Islamist group) Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognise the emptiness of the terrorists’ vision and the injustice of their cause,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iran said on Thursday the latest round of talks with UN inspectors to resolve remaining issues over its disputed nuclear work were “positive and constructive”, a news agency reported.
Experts from the two sides on Wednesday wrapped up three days of talks aimed at removing concerns about Iran’s nuclear uranium enrichment programme, which the West suspects is aimed at building atom bombs.
“Technical and expertise discussions were held in a positive and constructive atmosphere,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, told Iran’s ISNA news agency.
In Vienna, an IAEA spokeswoman declined comment on the series of talks, saying results would be in the agency’s next report on Iran due in a week to 10 days’ time.
The intelligence came variously from a laptop computer spirited out of Iran by a defector in 2004 and passed to Washington, from some other Western countries and from the IAEA’s own inquiries. “I doubt further talks with the IAEA will continue in coming days but it depends on the IAEA’s studies. If the IAEA wants, we will continue talks,” he said.
The UN Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for defying suspending its sensitive nuclear work. Major powers are expected to offer a revised package of trade and other incentives to Iran in coming days if Tehran suspends its sensitive nuclear work.
Iran’s new offer for international talks falls far short of meeting demands by world powers, focusing on gene realities without touching on UN Security Council calls that Tehran give up uranium enrichment, according to a copy of the offer obtained on Thursday by The Associated Press.
The Islamic Republic also sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon complaining that Security Council sanctions imposed mainly because of Tehran’s refusal to suspend enrichment were “illegal.”