Bolton: 'Put Up or Shut Up' Time for Iran

Three possibilities loom regarding Iran's nuclear program, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Neil Cavuto on Fox News' "Your World" program.

"There is the possibility of diplomatic negotiations with Iran, if they show they're serious . . . we have the Security Council, with potential economic sanctions, and we have the activity that we can engage in without Security Council approval - the president's ?proliferation Security Initiative' to deny Iran sensitive materials and technology, the financial pressure that we can apply, and the support for the democracy movement in Iran."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that the U.S. is willing to join in face-to-face talks with Iran over its nuclear program.

Bolton made it clear that President Bush wants to find a diplomatic solution to the Iran situation, but that we are nearing the end game. "I think it's important that [Iran] take a very careful look at what Secretary Rice laid out . . . because it really is their last chance, in many respects," Bolton told Cavuto.

Additionally, America's new offer to talk directly with Iran if they stop enriching uranium is, in Bolton's words, "a major effort on our part to avoid this being a discussion about what the United States [is] doing wrong, and get it back to the real point which is what Iran's doing wrong."

Cavuto asked, "They're claiming it's propaganda . . . is it?" Bolton replied, "No. This is very serious . . . The Iranians have been making the point that if we don't sit down and talk then this isn't a serious effort," so the new offer of talk after cessation of enrichment will "take that excuse away from them and focus on what really the problem is, which is their pursuit of nuclear weapons."

What if they say they'll stop enrichment as soon as the talks start, asked Cavuto?

"This is a precondition on which we're not going to compromise, and it's a precondition consistent with what the five permanent members of the Security Council, the Security Council itself, and the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] have already said.

"If they stop uranium enrichment and plutonium processing, then that's a sign that they're serious about the talks."

If they don't stop enrichment, then "the other alternative is clear, too, and that is that we will move for economic and political sanctions to make it clear to them what their choice is," Bolton added.
Ambassador Bolton also made it clear that the U.S. is after a shutdown of Iran's nuclear weapons program, not just an end to uranium enrichment.

"Their program is much more extensive than enrichment . . . there's no way they could have engaged in the breadth and scope of the program that they've undertaken unless they had a weapons purpose in mind," he said.

Cavuto then told Bolton that former Secretary of State Eagleburger told him in an interview, "and I'm paraphrasing, ?While we're whistling, they're building, and the North Koreans played this game with us during the Clinton years - promised one thing and didn't deliver.' Are we going to repeat that?"

"The Iranians don't have an infinite time to respond to this offer," Bolton assured Cavuto. "They need to take time to look at it seriously, but then we expect an answer, and we're not going to be fooled into the pattern that they've followed the past couple of years where they've admitted, quite publicly, that they deceived the Europeans, and that they used the cover of negotiations to perfect their uranium enrichment process. We're not going to permit that again."

Cavuto then asked, "What if none of this works... there is always what some would say is the ?Israeli Option' - they dealt with Iraq with this technology 26 years ago. Is it going to be Israel that settles it?"

Their conversation went like this:

Bolton:The president's made it very clear he wants to resolve the Iranian nuclear weapons program though peaceful and diplomatic means, but he's also said that Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable.

Cavuto: But unacceptable means that if it keeps going on you're going to do something about it . . .

Bolton: No option is taken off the table.

Cavuto: Military as well?

Bolton: Exactly.

Cavuto: Unilateral military action?

Bolton: Secretary Rice made that point . . . that's why . . .

Cavuto: That we would act alone if we had to?

Bolton: That's why he says no option is taken off the table. But it's also why the president has reached out to [Russian] President Putin and other leaders in the past couple of days to say, "We're making a significant step here" - that will be criticized by many of the president's staunchest supporters here at home, but he's taking this step to show strength and American leadership. He's doing it to say "We gave Iran this last chance to show they are serious when they say ?We don't want nuclear weapons.'" This is "put up or shut up" time for Iran.

Cavuto then said he feels Iran is flouting our demands - that Iran thinks the U.S. is bogged down with other military actions around the world and it can never really get tough.

Bolton responded that the president knows what he means when he said he isn't taking any options off the table. "And I come back to the point that he has said in public and private: ?It's unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons.' He is a man of his word."