Sunday, Feb 20, 2005
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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON, FEB. 19. The United States President, George W. Bush, has said that his country has no plans for attacking Iran to take out its suspected nuclear weapons and that diplomacy is still the preferred route. That said, Mr. Bush also made it known that "you never want a President to say never". Ahead of his trip to Europe on Sunday to set relations with allies on course, the President met European journalists at the White House where many of the questions were on Iran. "I hear all these rumours about military attacks and it's just not the truth. We want diplomacy to work", the President said. Mr. Bush talked to correspondents from France, Germany, Russia, Belgium and Slovakia in relation to his five-day trip. "Listen, first of all you never want a President to say `never'. But military action is certainly not — it's never the President's first choice. Diplomacy is always the President's first — at least my first choice", Mr. Bush said, going on to make the point that he supported Europe's initiatives vis-a-vis Iran. "I believe diplomacy can work so long as the Iranians don't divide Europe and the United States. There's a lot more diplomacy to be done", Mr. Bush remarked stressing that Teheran knows what it should do but it is trying to "wiggle" out. Mr. Bush argued that Iranians think they did not have anything to do just because Washington is not involved directly in the process. "Well, America is involved. We're in close consultation with our friends". "We have a common goal. And that is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon... If we continue to speak with one voice and not let them split us up, and keep up the pressure on them, we can achieve the objective". Between Monday and Thursday, Mr. Bush will be meeting the leaders of Belgium, France, Germany, Ukraine, Britain, Russia and Slovakia and members of the European Union.
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