Bush calls Iran nuke talk ‘wild speculation’

US PRESIDENT George W Bush said yesterday that force is not necessarily required to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon, and he dismissed reports of plans for a military attack against Tehran as “wild speculation”.

Mr Bush said his goal is to keep the Iranians from having the capability or the knowledge to have a nuclear weapon.

“I know we’re here in Washington [where] prevention means force,” Mr Bush said during an appearance at the Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “It doesn’t mean force necessarily. In this case it means diplomacy.”

Mr Bush and other administration officials have said repeatedly that the military option is on the table, and White House officials acknowledge “normal” military planning is under way.

Several reports published over the weekend said the administration was studying options for military strikes, and an account in The New Yorker magazine raised the possibility of using nuclear bombs against Iran’s underground nuclear sites.

Mr Bush did not directly respond to that report but said: “What you’re reading is just wild speculation.”

But Mr Bush said he was correct to include Iran in the “axis of evil” with Iraq and North Korea and that he’s glad to see other countries taking the threat from Iran seriously, too.

Taking questions from the audience, Mr Bush also made these points:

He declassified part of a pre-war intelligence report on Iraq in 2003 to show Americans the basis for his statements about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

He intends to remain on the sidelines as Republicans choose their nominee for president in 2008. “I will be an interested observer,” said Mr Bush. He said he would focus his energy on issues such as decreasing the nation’s reliance on foreign oil and finding answers to the solvency problems of Medicare and Social Security.

The White House sought yesterday to minimise new speculation about a possible military strike against Iran while acknowledging that the Pentagon is developing contingency plans to deal with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to confirm or deny The New Yorker report.

Defence experts say a military strike on Iran would be risky and complicated.