WP : Bush accuses Iran of backing terror, nuclear arms

Bush accuses Iran of backing terror, nuclear arms

By Steve Holland | Reuters | September 19, 2006

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President George W. Bush told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday the United States wants peace with Iran and urged world leaders to move quickly to save Darfur.

Bush took center stage at the U.N. General Assembly for an annual address to his international counterparts, many of whom remain skeptical of him four years after he made the case here for a firm stance against Saddam Hussein on charges he possessed weapons of mass destruction.

With post-Saddam Iraq struggling with sectarian violence and a fight brewing with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, Bush insisted the world must support moderates in the Middle East over extremists. He sought to assure Muslims that the United States is not at war against Islam.

In a message he said was directed at people across the Middle East, Bush said: "My country desires peace. Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false."

"We respect Islam, but we will protect our people from those who pervert Islam to sow death and destruction," he said.

In a shot across the bow at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was also in New York for the General Assembly, Bush told Iranians their greatest obstacle "is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons."

Bush believes Ahmadinejad, despite his denials, is determined to develop a nuclear weapon and is resisting demands to halt uranium enrichment by stalling for time and trying to divide Europe and the United States.

Bush said he had no objection to Iran's pursuit of peaceful nuclear power and said a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear desire was being sought.

Bush sounded a note of frustration at the U.N.'s inability to get a peacekeeping force into Sudan's devastated Darfur region.

The United Nations passed a resolution last month to send 20,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, where about 7,000 African Union troops have been battling to keep the peace in an area the size of France. Sudan has so far refused to accept a U.N. force.

"If the Sudanese government does not approve the peacekeeping force quickly, the U.N. must act," Bush said.

He said the lives of the people of Darfur "and the credibility of the United Nations is at stake."

Bush also announced he has appointed Andrew Natsios, former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as a special U.S. envoy to try to end the violence in Darfur.

Years of fighting in Sudan's west have forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes for overcrowded refugee camps with little prospect of returning to the life they once knew. Non-Arab tribes took up arms against the government in February 2003 to protest alleged neglect and deprivation.

Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Bush said he had directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to lead a diplomatic effort aimed at getting Israel and the Palestinians to resolve their differences.

Bush said Rice will "engage moderate leaders across the region" to help Palestinians reform their security services and support Israeli and Palestinian leaders as they try to settle their dispute.

Amid signs the Bush administration is focusing more attention on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Rice met both Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.

Bush is to meet Abbas on Wednesday.

The State Department wants to bolster Abbas, whose Fatah party lost in elections last January to the military group Hamas and is encouraging more Israeli contact with him.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Sue Pleming)