The Hindu : Bush backs pro-democracy protest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

International

International

Bush backs pro-democracy protest

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON JUNE 19 . In what is his toughest stance against Iran in recent times, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, has said that the international community should make it clear to Teheran that it will not `tolerate' the development of a nuclear weapon; and offered strong support to the pro-democracy students protesting the lack of reforms, in the last several days.

"I appreciate those courageous souls who speak out for freedom in Iran. They need to know America stands squarely by their side. And I would urge the Iranian administration to treat them with the utmost respect," the President said.

Mr. Bush's remarks on Iran's nuclear weapons programme and his all-out support to the anti-regime elements in Iran are bound to raise apprehensions in the region and elsewhere, especially in the context of this Republican President having branded Iran as belonging in the "Axis of Evil" along with North Korea.

"The international community must come together to make it very clear to Iran that it will not tolerate the construction of a nuclear weapon. Iran would be dangerous if they have a nuclear weapon," Mr. Bush told reporters. He said the issue had come up for discussion at the recent summit of the Group of Eight in France. "We had a good discussion on the subject with near-universal agreement that we all must work together to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon," the President said.

The Bush administration is virtually paying no attention to Iran's statements that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, for generation of electric power, with officials here questioning why Teheran needs a nuclear programme, given all its oil wealth.

Further, Washington has been leaning quite hard on Russia to halt all assistance to the Iranian programme; but this pressure has not worked well. Aside from concerns about Iran's nuclear weapons programme, the Bush administration has also expressed worries about Teheran's missile programmes and has said that the country has ties to terrorist outfits such as Al-Qaeda.

But in the immediate context, the Republican administration is hoping that the International Atomic Energy Agency will confront Iran on the nuclear issue and find it in violation of the nuclear treaty. This will then push the issue to the United Nations Security Council. Washington is now demanding that Iran should accept a more intrusive inspections programme, saying it finds the latest IAEA report "deeply troubling."

The White House, meanwhile, has rejected Iran's contention that the report of the IAEA had been tailored to please the U.S. The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, argued that the United Nations and the IAEA are "proudly independent organisations" which make their own judgements. "Sometimes we agree with them, sometimes we don't," he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International