Just hours before being sworn in for a econd term, Vice President Dick Cheney publicly raised the possibility on Thursday that Israel "might well decide to act first" to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
In an interview on the MSNBC program Imus in the Morning, a highly unusual forum for Cheney, he appeared to use the danger of Israeli military action as one more reason that the Iranians should reach a diplomatic agreement to disarm, noting dryly that any such strike would leave "a diplomatic mess afterwards" and should be avoided.
President Bush, in his inaugural speech on Thursday, appeared to have Iran, among other countries, in mind when he said he was committed to "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
After defending the administration's decision to invade Iraq, Cheney, who appeared on the show with his wife, Lynne, was asked about the Iranian threat. "We believe they have a fairly robust new nuclear program," he said of the Iranians, avoiding the word "weapons," though in the US and European intelligence communities there is a widespread belief that the program is intended to build a nuclear arsenal.
Cheney called Iran "a noted sponsor of terror," particularly in its support for Hezbollah, and said the combination of nuclear technology and terrorism "is of great concern."
"You look around at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list," he said.
Cheney focused on diplomacy, not military action, as the key to the Iranian situation.
"At some point, if the Iranians don't live up to their commitments, the next step will be to take it to the UN Security Council, and seek the imposition of international sanctions," he said, restating the administration's longstanding position.
Europe has opposed any such move, saying it would only drive Iran to break out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and openly pursue an atomic weapon, the path that North Korea took two years ago.
Don Imus, who during the election campaign made no secret of his dislike of the policies of Bush and Cheney, then asked, "Why don't we make Israel do it?" -- a reference to a military option much discussed in Washington but rarely talked about in public by top officials.
"Well, one of the concerns people have is that Israel might do it without being asked," Cheney said.
"If, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had a significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards," added.
"We don't want a war in the Middle East, if we can avoid it," he said. "In the case of the Iranian situation, I think everybody would be best suited or best treated and dealt with if we could deal with it diplomatically."
For more than a year the CIA and other intelligence agencies have been intently focused on identifying Iranian nuclear facilities. Some of that information has been shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency to guide its inspections.
Imus, unable to resist the temptation to tease Cheney about his reputation as the real decision maker in the White House, also asked him: "Do you want to be president now?"
"No," the vice president said, with no hesitation.
Imus pressed: "Are you the president now?"
"No," Cheney said. "But that was a nice try."
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS