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President Bush in Europe, February 23, 2005

Bush, Schroeder Call on Iran to Give Up Nuclear Ambitions

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
(Mainz, Germany)
February 23, 2005

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BUSH AND GERMAN CHANCELLOR SCHROEDER IN PRESS AVAILABILITY

Electoral Palace
Mainz, Germany
12:24 P.M. (Local)

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. Chancellor Schroeder has said that Iran will abandon its nuclear ambitions only after knowing that its economic and legitimate security concerns have been addressed. First of all, do you agree with that assessment, and can that happen without the United States joining the talks with Iran?

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that. Look, first, let me just make this very clear -- the party that has caused these discussions to occur in the first place are the Iranians. And the reason we're having these discussions is because they were caught enriching uranium after they had signed a treaty saying they wouldn't enrich uranium. So there is a -- these discussions are occurring because they have breached a contract with the international community. They're the party that needs to be held to account, not any of us.

And secondly, what we discussed with our German friends and French and British friends, as well, is a series of negotiating tactics -- how to make sure the process moves forward without yielding to our universal demand.

I might add, I believe there's another demand that makes sense, as well, and that is that the Iranian government listen to the hopes and aspirations of the Iranian people. That's what the German system does; that's what the American system does. We believe that the voice of the people ought to be determining policy, because we believe in democracy and freedom. And so, as we go down the road, we look forward to discussing ways to make -- to talk with the three interlocutors, without yielding at all on the universal demand that they must give up their weapons in a transparent way. And I'm hopeful we can achieve our objective. And we discussed tactics, some of which have bubbled up, obviously, into the public domain.

And we will continue to talk tactics, to make sure that we achieve the objective: Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. For the sake of security and peace, they must not have a nuclear weapon. And that is a goal shared by Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States. And working together, we can get this accomplished.

Source: US Department of State, Washington File, http://usinfo.state.gov.

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