Bolton: Iran Nuclear Aims a Threat

The Associated Press:

A senior U.S. official said Monday he was consulting Arab states in the Persian Gulf to coordinate policies in light of the perceived threat of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

John Bolton, the State Department's top international security official, said countries in the region were "well aware" of the threat posed by Iran, which maintains its nuclear activities are for peaceful energy purposes.

"Their repeated support for terrorism makes it particularly dangerous if they were to acquire a nuclear weapon," Bolton told reporters.

"Whether they would use it directly as the government of Iran or whether they would transfer it to a terrorist group leaves us very concerned," said Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

Bolton said he has explained to leaders in the Gulf America's stance on the "Iranian problem and how we've been dealing in the past and how we proposed to deal with in the future." ...

"There are a series of things that we have discussed in which additional diplomatic pressure can be put on Iran to prevent them from acquiring the necessary material and technology that they need for their nuclear weapons program," he said.

Bolton stressed that the United States advocated a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and dismissed the possibility of nuclear threats from Israel. ...

The U.S. administration has suggested taking Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

"If Iran can ... either acquire weapons or develop them indigenously, it will be a signal that the international community is powerless to stop a very determined country that wants to acquire nuclear weapons," Bolton said. "That would be a bad lesson indeed."

TODAY'S FREE REPUBLIC THREAD & COMMENTS CAN BE FOUND HERE!