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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 22, 2005 |
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U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney noted that Israel "might well decide to act first" to eliminate any nuclear threat from Tehran. "You look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list," Cheney said in an interview aired on MSNBC on the day that George W. Bush was sworn in for a second four-year term as president.
He warned that Israel might act against the Iranians "without being asked."According to the vice-president, "If, in fact, the Israelis became convinced the Iranians had significant nuclear capability, given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards."
"We don't want a war in the Middle East, if we can avoid it. And certainly in the case of the Iranian situation, I think everybody would be best suited or best treated and dealt with if we could deal with it diplomatically," Cheney said.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Senior Israeli officials said Cheney's comment was intended less as a warning to Israel not to act than as a warning to Europeans and others in the international community that they need to keep Iran from attaining nuclear weapons. One official noted that the first part of Cheney's statement gave a justification for Israeli action, since he said that Iran's has as a stated objective the elimination of Israel.
"He is telling the world that unless they act, there is no telling what Israel would do. And then who knows what the consequence may be," the official said. "His point is that the world should act now, rather than have to deal with a much more difficult situation later."
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