US President George W. Bush said Thursday he was committed to a peaceful deal to halt Iran's nuclear programme, while vowing to "keep the pressure" up on the Islamic regime through UN sanctions.
At a White House press conference, the beleaguered president also said he was "optimistic" about prospects for the US economy, despite acknowledging "unsettling" times in the housing market. Bush refused to comment on whether North Korea was supplying nuclear know-how to Syria, but warned Pyongyang that "we expect them to stop their proliferation." And he reiterated his belief that US troops in war-torn Iraq could be drawn down as security gains advance, arguing that Iraqis themselves are "sick and tired" of insurgent violence.
"I have consistently stated that I am hopeful that we can convince the Iranian regime to give up any ambitions it has in developing a weapons programme and do so peacefully," Bush said. "That ought to be the objective of any diplomacy," he said, as the five UN Security Council permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany prepared to debate new steps against Iran Friday.
The Security Council has adopted three resolutions against Iran. Two include sanctions because of Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which it says is purely for civilian energy purposes.
"To this end, we are working with allies and friends to send a consistent message to the Iranians that there is a better way forward for them than isolation: financial isolation and/or economic sanctions," Bush said.
"I believe it is imperative that we continue to work in a multilateral fashion to send that message," the president said, while insisting that the United States has no argument with the Iranian people.
"And the people of Iran have got to know that some of the suffering that they're having inside their country is caused by their government's inability to work with the world in a responsible way," he said.
"So we'll keep the pressure on them and the objective of course is to solve this peacefully." On Iraq, Bush reaffirmed that Iraq's government must pursue political compromise but stressed that "there has to be a change in security for there to be reconciliation." Bush said last week he was adopting recommendations by his Iraq commander, General David Petraeus, to cut force levels after security advances notably in Anbar province, where Sunni leaders have joined the fight against al Qaeda.
The reductions would take the US presence down to about 130,000 by mid-2008, roughly their number before Bush launched a military "surge" in February and still far too high for the vast majority of anti-war Democrats. "I have said that progress will yield fewer troops. In other words, return on success is what i said," the president said at his press conference.