[Washington Post] Robin Wright and Thomas E. Ricks - President Bush Tuesday endorsed Israel's campaign to cripple or eliminate Hizballah, charged that Syria is trying to reassert control of Lebanon, and called for the isolation of Iran. Bush said the "root cause" of the conflict between Israel and Hizballah "is terrorism and terrorist attacks on a democratic country. And part of those terrorist attacks are inspired by nation states, like Syria and Iran. And in order to be able to deal with this crisis, the world must deal with Hizballah, with Syria, and to continue to work to isolate Iran." Bush said again that Israel should be allowed to defend itself. "It is now clear for all to see that there are terrorist elements who want to destroy our democratic friends and allies, and the world must work to prevent them from doing so," Bush said. "The real objective here has to be to deny the Mediterranean branch of Tehran a strategic victory," a senior U.S. official added.
2006-07-19 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive