President Bush said Iran must be stopped from gaining nuclear weapons know-how to avoid World War III.
The president said he is stressing that to world leaders. “If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would be a dangerous threat to world peace,” Bush said at a news conference Wednesday. “We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” Bush’s emphasis on keeping Iran from acquiring the knowledge to build a nuclear weapon nudges him closer to the Israeli position.
In recent months, Israel has said its red line is Iran achieving nuclear weapon know-how, which it believes may be as soon as next year. U.S. officials, by contrast, until now reportedly have said the red line should be Iran’s capacity to actually build a weapon, which might take years.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.