US President George W. Bush renewed his administration's strike-first policy against terrorists and other US enemies and rebuked Iran over allegations it is secretly amassing nuclear weapons.
The White House said that by reaffirming the pre-emptive policy, the US was not targeting Iran. Yet the National Security Strategy includes harsh words for the Iranian government, which Bush says may pose the greatest challenge to the US.
"The president's strategy affirms that the doctrine of pre-emption remains sound and must remain an integral part of our national security strategy," said Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser.
"We do not rule out the use of force before attacks occur, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack," Hadley said.
The 49-page report also said North Korea poses a serious nuclear proliferation challenge; expresses dismay at rollbacks in democratic reform in Russia; brands Syria a tyranny that harbors terrorists and sponsors terror; and warns China against denying personal and political freedoms.
"China's leaders must realize, however, that they cannot stay on this peaceful path while holding on to old ways of thinking and acting that exacerbate concerns throughout the region and the world,'' Bush wrote.
The report accuses Iran of meddling in Iraq and equipping the insurgency, which is threatening a fragile democracy in Baghdad. The report was released as US and Iraqi forces launched the largest air assault mission against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq since the US-led invasion in April 2003.
The administration is working to persuade Russia and China to support a proposed UN Security Council resolution demanding that Iran end its uranium enrichment program.
"This diplomatic effort must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided," Bush said. He did not elaborate on what would happen if international negotiations with Iran were to fail.
Hadley said the international effort must speak with one voice if diplomacy is to succeed in getting Iran to curb its move toward nuclear weapons development.
"We are, I think, beginning to get indications that the Iranians are finally beginning to listen," Hadley said. "There is beginning to be a debate within the leadership -- and I would hope a debate between the leadership and their people -- about whether the course they're on is the right course for the good of their country."
The report is an updated version of one Bush issued in 2002 that outlined the pre-emptive policy, marking an end of a deterrent military strategy that dominated the Cold War.
The latest report makes it clear Bush has not changed his mind, even though no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. Susan Rice, a national security expert at Brookings Institution, said the report echoes the 2002 version "by reaffirming the discredited doctrine of pre-emption, while shifting the presumed target of that doctrine from Iraq to Iran."
"This shift is ironic since the administration's all-encompassing, four-year preoccupation with Iraq afforded Iran the time and space to pursue its nuclear ambitions and undermine US security interests in the Middle East," Rice said.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
RSS