President Bush's former United Nations ambassador John Bolton said the United States would stand behind a pre-emptive strike by Israel against countries developing "WMD facilities."
In his remark, printed in Tuesday's edition of the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, Bolton directly referenced Iran.
"The greatest concern is to prevent Iran and other countries in the region from acquiring nuclear weapons," Bolton said, according to JTA.org, a Jewish news service. "We're talking about a clear message to Iran -- Israel has the right to self-defense --and that includes offensive operations against WMD facilities that pose a threat to Israel. The United States would justify such attacks."
Asked whether Israel has the capability to strike Iran, he added, "In fact it's so clear that on the MIT website there's a paper by two individuals that detail from open sources just exactly how the Israelis could do it."
