Bush urges U.N. action against Iran

President Bush yesterday urged that Iran be hauled before the U.N. Security Council for pursuing nuclear weapons, a move that Tehran said would end its cooperation with U.N. inspectors.

“It’s logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council,” Mr. Bush said during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“I want to remind you that the current president of Iran has announced that the destruction of Israel is an important part of their agenda,” he added. “The development of a nuclear weapon, seems like to me, would make them a step closer to achieving that objective.”

Mrs. Merkel echoed Mr. Bush’s frustrations and said she was dismayed that years of European negotiations with Tehran had failed.

“We actually did everything we could,” she said. “They refused it. Iran refused every offer we made, even the Russian offer.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off the threat of international sanctions.

“Iran is not frightened by threats from any country and it will continue the path of production of the nuclear energy,” he said on state-run radio. “Iranian people do not allow foreigners to block their progress.”

Mr. Bush and Mrs. Merkel discussed potential strategies for ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Iran, which alarmed the international community on Tuesday by resuming uranium enrichment.

Two days later, Germany, France and Britain announced that 21/2 years of negotiations with Tehran had reached a “dead end.” The trio urged that the matter be referred to the Security Council.

But China, a veto-wielding member of the council, balked at such a move, suggesting it would only serve to harden Iran’s intransigence.

Yesterday, Mr. Bush made clear he was trying to win over Beijing.

“We’ll reach out to the Chinese and remind them, once again, that it’s not in their interest or the world’s interest for the Iranians to develop the capacity to … build a weapon,” he said in the East Room.

Mrs. Merkel vowed to take a tougher stance going forward.

“We will certainly not be intimidated by a country such as Iran,” she said. “You are trying to lie to us, you are trying to cheat. This is something that we don’t accept.”

Her rhetoric was echoed by White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

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