Bush: Iranian nuclear know-how a red line

By · October 17, 2007

President Bush said Iran must be stopped from gaining nuclear weapons know-how to avoid World War III.

The president said he is stressing that to world leaders.

“If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would be a dangerous threat to world peace,” Bush said at a news conference Wednesday. “We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Bush’s emphasis on keeping Iran from acquiring the knowledge to build a nuclear weapon nudges him closer to the Israeli position.

In recent months, Israel has said its red line is Iran achieving nuclear weapon know-how, which it believes may be as soon as next year. U.S. officials, by contrast, until now reportedly have said the red line should be Iran’s capacity to actually build a weapon, which might take years.