Iran Nuclear Watch: President Bush to President Ahamdinejad – “When Will You Get Rid of Your Nuclear Program?”

President Bush speaks with the members of media after meeting with victims of identity theft, Wednesday, May 10, 2006, in the Roosevelt Room in the White House. At left is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

ASSociated Press: Bush: Iran Letter Doesn’t Answer Question

President Bush says a lengthy letter from Iran’s leader doesn’t answer the question the world is asking, which is: “When will you get rid of your nuclear program?”

The president made his first public comment on the letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a session with reporters from several Florida newspapers in Orlando.

The president tells reporters that the U.S. and other nations are in agreement that Iran shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon or the capacity to make one. But he says the letter didn’t address that question.

President Bush fires back at Ahmadinejad and challenges him to the central issue: Iran’s uranium enrichment program and the Mullah’s desire for a nuclear weapon.

Flap is looking forward to Ahmadinejad’s response.

Will it be another rambling 18 page letter ala Cindy Sheehan, Hugo Chavez and George Galloway?

Probably….

In the meantime, Conoleezza Rice is pursuing the diplomatic front and outlines two options for Iran.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that a new proposal that European diplomats will soon present to Iran makes plain the international cost of going forward with disputed nuclear development.

Rice acknowledged that any attempt to punish or coerce Iran through the United Nations Security Council is on hold while Britain, France and Germany renew diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to back down.

“Iran knows that there are two options that have been there all along. They can have a civilian nuclear program that is appropriate and that the international community can support, or they can face isolation,” Rice told reporters in Washington.

Stay tuned for Iran’s response…..