Rice: World events support 'axis of evil' claim

Condoleeza Rice has suggested that recent events in Iran and North Korea support President George Bush’s 2002 claim that those nations were part of an “axis of evil”.

The US Secretary of State made the claim yesterday after radio discussions on the North Korean nuclear test and the anti-Semitic remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“You think of some of the world reaction to the president’s use of the word ‘axis of evil’, and then you see how events have been unfolding,” the host said.

Rice replied: “It was a pretty good analysis, wasn’t it? It really was.”

Bush used the term in his second State of the Union address to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea, states he said sponsored terrorism and sought weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, was toppled the next year in a US-led invasion, but autocratic governments remain in place in the other two countries, and both have nuclear programmes that alarm the West.

Bush’s remark drew immediate criticism as being potentially damaging to US foreign policy.

In the case of North Korea, it has been blamed for souring what might have been an opportunity for the US to engage the reclusive Pyongyang leaders and negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons program. The Bush administration says North Korea was determined to cheat, and it pursued a more effective strategy of international diplomacy.

Rice said: “The president three years ago realised that in order to manage the North Korean nuclear problem, a problem that’s been going for decades, we have to have a regional coalition.

“This isn’t something the US was going to be able to do alone.”

Proof of the strategy’s success came when China voted this month to impose sanctions on its neighbour and ally North Korea, she said.

On Iran, Rice said that nation’s people deserve a better leader. She predicted the UN Security Council will approve sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme “in the next few weeks”.