An angry United States President George Bush rounded on the two remaining members of Washington’s ”axis of evil” yesterday, as he dismissed ”absurd” suggestions that the US presents the greatest threat to world stability.
At a summit with the European Union in Vienna, Bush made clear that he believes Iran and North Korea pose the most serious danger when he warned them not to test his patience. Hours after Tehran announced that it would wait until the end of August to respond to an international package to curb its nuclear programme, Bush insisted that Iran must act within weeks.
”It seems an awful long time for a response to a reasonable proposal,” Bush said after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would give his response on August 22. ”I said weeks not months and I think that is the view of other parties.”
Bush also warned North Korea that it would face even greater international isolation if it carries out its threat to test-fire its long range missiles. ”It should make people nervous when non-transparent regimes, who have announced they have nuclear warheads, fire missiles,” he said. ”This is not the way you conduct business in the world.”
US officials said they could try to shoot down a North Korea test missile with 11 interceptors the US has in Alaska and California — the first phase of the Bush administration’s planned national missile defence system. But experts said that it was unlikely that the interceptors will be used, as tests have raised questions over whether they will work. The last successful test was in 2002.
Bush bridled at the suggestion that Europeans regard the US as the greatest threat to world stability, cutting across his Austrian hosts to snap: ”That is absurd. We’ll defend ourselves but we are working with our partners to spread peace and democracy around the world.”
Bush won support from Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian Chancellor and summit host, who said his country would never forget America’s role in saving it after the second world war. ”It is grotesque to say that the US is a greater threat to peace in the world compared with Iran and North Korea,” Schüssel said.
Schüssel, who had called for the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, pulled his punches after Bush pre-empted his host’s concerns. As soon as the summit went into closed session Bush said he would like to close the facility. – Guardian Unlimited Â