Obama: The danger from Iran is real and my goal is to eliminate this threat
In his first foreign policy speech after clinching the Democratic nomination for president, Sen. Barack Obama vowed that as president he would deepen American defense cooperation with Israel. “Those who threaten Israel, threaten us. I will bring an unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security and guarantee Israel’s military strength so that it can defend itself from any threat – from Gaza to Tehran. Obama said he would sign a memo of understanding promising Israel $30 bn over 10 years. He was addressing the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual conference, June 4.
Obama spelled out his position on talks with Iran. He said: “I will do everything in my power – everything, everything – to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” Iran has grown stronger and increased its support for terror since this administration went to war in Iraq “and I refuse to support a policy that has made the US and Israel less secure.”
Proposing getting US troops out of Iraq “carefully”, Obama urged broaching Iran first with “aggressive principles and diplomacy. We have no time to waste. I would keep the military option on the table to defend our security and our ally Israel,” he stressed.” But, he said, diplomacy can be tough if backed by real leverage with no illusions. “We must give Iran a clear choice: Abandon nuclear weapons, support for terror and hatred for Israel or else we will ratchet up the pressure. Al Qods is rightly labeled a terrorist organization.
“If we must use military force, we are more likely to succeed at home and abroad if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts.
Some lay all the Middle East problems at the door of Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians, he said. “It is not, never has been and never will be.”
He endorsed the Bush vision of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, saying there was no room at the negotiating table for [the Hamas] terrorists. While stressing that Israel’s identity must be preserved as “a Jewish state with secure, recongized and defensible borders and Jerusalem its undivided capital,” Obama also stated that the Palestinians need a state “that is contiguous.” He advised Israel to take steps consistent with its security to ease conditions on the West Bank and refrain from building new settlements.
Obama declared repeatedly that as president he would never compromise on his commitment to Israel’s security – “not while there are still voices that deny the Holocaust, not when there are terrorists who threaten Israel’s existence and there are rockets raining down from Gaza.”
Asserting that oil prices are a dangerous weapon and they were bankrolling the Iranian regime, he urged greater US-Israeli partnership to develop alternative sources of energy.