Obama warns Iran on nukes
Also pays tribute to slain envoy in U.N. speech,
NEW YORK President Obama used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to warn Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear program, while insisting that simply containing a nuclear-armed Iran was not an acceptable option for the United States.
In a speech in which he focused on the aftermath of the Arab Spring and the recent killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Obama used stark language to send a message to both the regime in Tehran and a domestic audience as he faces growing criticism from Republican opponents about his Iran policy.
He said that a nuclear-armed Iran would trigger an arms race, unravel the long-standing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and threaten the elimination of Israel — dark language that echoes concerns of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But the president remains far from embracing the Israeli premier’s charge that Iran is six to seven months away from having the capability to build a nuclear weapon.
“America wants to resolve this issue through diplomacy, and we believe that there is still time and space to do so,” Obama said. “But that time is not unlimited.”
GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign hammered Obama for his stance on Iran after the speech, reiterating their longstanding criticism that the president is not taking Israel’s concerns seriously.
“We face a choice between the forces that would drive us apart, and the hopes we hold in common.”
“Our national security and allies in the Middle East can’t afford four more years like the last four years under President Obama,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. “As president, Mitt Romney will ensure that Iran is never permitted to develop a nuclear weapons capability.”
Obama dedicated only a small portion of his 30-minute speech to Iran and spent much of his address reflecting on the challenges facing a Muslim world in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, a tumultuous period in the region.
He began by paying tribute to Ambassador Christopher Stevens, one of four Americans killed Sept. 11 in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and pointed to the longtime American diplomat as the embodiment of an American commitment to those striving for freedom.
The president called on the inter- national community not to be disheartened by the violence that has spread across the Middle East this month, including some anti-American protests ignited by an American filmmaker posting an incendiary video on the Internet portraying the prophet Mohammed as a goon.
The president called the recent spasm of violence “an assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.”
“If we are serious about those ideals, we must speak honestly about the deeper causes of this crisis,” Obama said, “because we face a choice between the forces that would drive us apart and the hopes we hold in common.”
The president condemned the video that has been linked to some of the violence, but he also made the point that “no slander . . . provides an excuse for people” to kill innocent people.
The president also directly addressed those in the Muslim world who have criticized his administration for not forcing YouTube to take down the video or taking action against the filmmakers. He argued that “the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech.”
He recognized that not all countries in the U.N. share the American value for protecting speech. But he noted to world leaders that in the modern world, anyone with a cellphone can spread their views around the world “with the click of a button” and said “the notion that we can control the flow of information is obsolete.”
“As president of our country and commander in chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day,” Obama said. “And I will always defend their right to do so.”