President Bush: The United States Wants Diplomacy To Work with Iran

February 18, 2005

Europe and the United States need to speak clearly to Iran "with one voice" to convey their common position that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, President Bush said.

In interviews with European journalists February 18, two days before his departure for Belgium, Germany and the Slovak Republic, Bush said he wants diplomacy to resolve the international community's differences with Iran.

"I hear all these rumors about military attacks, and it's just not the truth," he said. "We want diplomacy to work. And I believe diplomacy can work, so long as the Iranians don't divide Europe and the United States," Bush told ARD-German TV.

He told TV3-France of his conviction that "if the Iranians hear us loud and clear, without any wavering ... they will make the rational decision."

The president said the situation with Iran is "totally different" from international concerns over Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that eventually led to military action.

Iraq "was an issue where diplomacy had been exhausted," whereas, "the Iranian issue hasn't even been to the United Nations yet," said Bush on ARD-German TV.

"There's a lot more diplomacy to be done," he said, and the United States "will try diplomacy."

In addition to supporting joint U.S.-European efforts to convince Iran not to develop nuclear weapons, Bush called upon Iran to end its support of terrorism through Hizballah and to "open up their country to more democracy and freedom ... and give their people a chance to express themselves in a free way."