Still claiming that Iran is running a secret nuclear weapons program, President Bush said on Monday he wouldn?t rule out a military strike against Iran if it didn?t give up it nuclear ambitions.
When asked in an interview with NBC News whether he would rule out taking military action against Iran, Bush said: "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table." "If it continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program."
Iran has repeatedly denied U.S. claims that it was covertly trying to develop nuclear weapons, and affirms that its nuclear program is solely used for peaceful purposes, including producing electricity.
Bush's remarks came after a report, prepared by Seymour Hersh, was released on Sunday, saying that Washington was conducting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets.
Hersh is the journalist who first uncovered the flagrant abuses carried out by American soldiers on Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
"The Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled "The Coming Wars," the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, said in a statement.
DiRita criticised Hersh's report, saying it was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed,"
He added that Hersh's sources only provided him with "rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made."
Asked whether U.S. military forces had been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iran, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, "We don't discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces."
