Rice: "The Iranians Have to be Stopped"

Condi Rice is interviewed by Wolf (Ze'ev) Blitzer:-

QUESTION: Let’s move on and talk about something else in the region, Iran and nuclear tensions, specifically with Israel right now. The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday this:

“The IDF,” the Israel Defense Forces, “is drawing up options for a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities that do not include coordination with the United States, the Jerusalem Post has learned. While its preference is to coordinate with the U.S., defense officials have said Israel is preparing a wide range of options for such an operation.”

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I can’t comment on unknown sources. I don’t know what those sources are. I do know that we’ve had lots of very important discussions, not just with Israel but with states in the region, about the potential threat from an Iranian nuclear weapons program. The international community is focused on it because just that kind of talk lets you know how serious a matter this is.

The Iranians have to be stopped ultimately from gaining the kind of technology and putting that technology into use to build a nuclear weapons capability. And that’s what we’re all focused on.

QUESTION: How much time is there?

SECRETARY RICE: I don’t think it’s worthwhile to try to judge the many different timelines that are out there about when they might achieve that capability. The important thing is that Iran is under a microscope on this issue. Iran is under sanctions on this issue. Many, many companies and banks and institutions are leaving Iran. Iran is becoming more isolated. And there is even a debate in Iran about whether their government’s policies and the isolation that it has brought is worth it.

And so we have built extraordinary pressure on Iran that was not, frankly, there when the President came to office. When the President came to office, nobody really believed that the Iranians were trying to do this.

QUESTION: And you have no doubt that their intent – the Iranians – is to build a nuclear bomb?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I have no doubt that they could have a civil nuclear program tomorrow if they wished. We’ve told them, everyone has told them, that the kind of reactor that the Russians built for them at Bushehr, which is a civil nuclear reactor, with a fuel take-back to Russia, is available to them at any time. So if they want civil nuclear power, they’ve got an option. That leaves only the assumption that perhaps they’re not looking for civil nuclear power, but rather for a nuclear weapons program.