White House denies story about attacking Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) - May 20, 2008 A story in the Jerusalem Post quoted a "senior official" there
as saying that Bush plans to attack Iran in the coming months. The
story says the unidentified official claimed that a "senior
member" of Bush's traveling entourage made the statement about
attacking Iran in a closed meeting. Bush was in Israel last week.
The article also says the unnamed Bush official said that Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney "were of the opinion that military
action were called for."
"An article in today's Jerusalem Post about the president's
position on Iran that quotes unnamed sources - quoting unnamed
sources - is not worth the paper it's written on," White House
press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.
"Let me respond by reaffirming the policy of the
administration: We, along with our international allies who want
peace in the Middle East, remain opposed to Iran's ambitions to
obtain a nuclear weapon," Perino said. "To that end, we are
working to bring tough diplomatic and economic pressure on the
Iranians to get them to change their behavior and to halt their
uranium enrichment program."
Perino said the "president of the United States should never
take options off the table, but our preference and our actions for
dealing with this matter remain through peaceful diplomatic means.
Nothing has changed in that regard."
