Iran

“We need more sanctions. The next step is for the Europeans and the United States and Russia and China to understand that diplomacy only works if there are consequences. It is the international issue that faces us all. If the people in the Middle East do not think that the United States and Europe, for example, are going to work to provide security, they will find ways to secure themselves. And what the Middle East does not need is a nuclear arms race.

It does not need the instability that comes from an innate fear that the West is not strong enough or willing enough to take on the problem.

When you go to the Middle East and you sit in my seat and listen, yes, there’s concern about the Palestinian state. But the dialogue has shifted dramatically from ‘solve the Palestinian state and you’ve solved the problems in the Middle East’ to, now, ‘solve the Iranian issue and you solve the problems in the Middle East’.

I have made it clear that it’s difficult for the United States to resolve an issue in a one-on-one situation with people like Ahmadinejad. The only way to achieve consequences through diplomacy is for there to be a universal application – in this case, of sanctions. Unilateral sanctions do not work.”

Source: The Observer, Sunday June 15 2008 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/15/georgebush.usa1/print

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR