Iran brushes off Bush “WWIII" warning.

(AFP)
Khaleej Times

18 October 2007

TEHERAN - Iran Thursday shrugged off a warning by US President George W. Bush that its nuclear programme could lead to “World War III”, saying his remarks only served to show Teheran’s diplomatic success.

“These declarations show the anger of the United States against the success of Iran on the international stage,” said Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, the deputy head of Iran’s supreme national security council.

“The statements by the American president, who claims that Iran is seeking to make an atomic bomb, are part of a psychological war,” he added.
Bush warned on Wednesday that Iran must be barred from nuclear weapons after President Mahnoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be ”wiped from the map.”

“I’ve told people that, if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Washington accuses Teheran of seeking a nuclear weapon, allegations vehemently denied by the Islamic republic, which insists it only wants to generate electricity.

Rahmani Fazli also accused Bush of playing down the importance of Tuesday’s visit to Teheran by Russian President Vladimir Putin who backed Iran’s right to nuclear energy and emphasised Moscow’s differences with the West.

Bush was trying to “cover up the information about Putin’s visit and minimise the results of this visit,” he said.

The US president said he was looking forward to hearing Putin’s ”read-out from the meeting” and “whether or not he continues to harbor the same concerns that I do.”