Pelosi: Hitting Iran counterproductive

By · May 19, 2008

Military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be counterproductive, Nancy Pelosi said.

The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel, came out Monday against the idea of a preemptive attack on Iran.

“I don’t know what is to be gained by a military strike except to strengthen the president of Iran and to send up the cost of oil, but I do think that we must not take anything off the table,” Israel Radio quoted Pelosi as saying.

Pelosi further condemned Iran as “a threat to the neighborhood, a threat to the world, a source of funding for Hamas and Hezbollah.”

In a separate interview, Pelosi said that the United States must condition its ties to foreign nations on their agreement to Washington’s strong stand against Iran’s nuclear program.

“People have to know you are deadly serious that if you want to be our friend, if you want the benefit of our friendship, a central pillar of our foreign policy is to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” she told The Jerusalem Post.