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President Barack
Obama says his administration’s approach to Syria’s chemical weapons
should show Iran that there’s the potential for diplomatic solutions to
arms standoffs .
Talking to ABC Sunday, he said that Iran shouldn’t assume that his
preference for diplomacy means the U.S. won’t strike Tehran. The
Iranians understand that their pursuit of a nuclear weapon is “a far
larger issue for us” than the use of chemical weapons in Syria. But that will not “suddenly make it easy.”Obama spoke in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos,” taped Friday before the United States and Russia agreed on a plan to bring Syrian chemical weapons under international control in order to avoid military strikes.
But Obama said Iran should not interpret the diplomatic response — coming after he threatened to use strikes -- as suggesting that the United States wouldn’t attack Iran to stop the development of nuclear weapons.
“I think what the Iranians understand is that the nuclear issue is a far larger issue for us than the chemical weapons issue, that the threat. . . against Israel, that a nuclear Iran poses, is much closer to our core interests,” Obama said. “My suspicion is that the Iranians recognize they shouldn’t draw a lesson that we haven’t struck [Syria] to think we won’t strike Iran.”
But Obama said Iran should not interpret the diplomatic response — coming after he threatened to use strikes -- as suggesting that the United States wouldn’t attack Iran to stop the development of nuclear weapons.
“I think what the Iranians understand is that the nuclear issue is a far larger issue for us than the chemical weapons issue, that the threat. . . against Israel, that a nuclear Iran poses, is much closer to our core interests,” Obama said. “My suspicion is that the Iranians recognize they shouldn’t draw a lesson that we haven’t struck [Syria] to think we won’t strike Iran.”
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