On Thursday, Jan. 31, the Washington Post published an interview with President Bush
in reply to a question “At the rate things are going, is not — are you not going to leave office with Iran on its way to getting a nuclear weapon, insofar as the international sanctions don’t seem to be working?”

Pres. Bush answered: Well, first of all, 12 months is a long time. Secondly, what is definitely going to happen is that there is going to be a framework for the world to pressure the Iranians. Condoleezza Rice just came back from a successful European trip, where once again it looks like we’re going to get the Europeans, as well as Russia and China, to send another message to the Iranians.

And in reply to whether or not it’s working or not, he said: There is evidence that the Iranian economy is not flourishing; the poor people have gotten poorer; that there’s economic depravation. And one part of our strategy, of course, is to continue their isolation and continue to pressure… And other than that, it’s all I feel comfortable commenting on, except to remind you that all options are on the table.

President Bush in a speech in Nevada warned that a hasty pull-out from Iraq would ruin fragile progress there and “Failure in Iraq would embolden Iran.”

“Failure in Iraq would embolden the extremists. Failure in Iraq would say to thugs and killers, the United States is a paper tiger,” Bush said in his speech, adding “Failure in Iraq would embolden Iran.”

White House officials say they expect to know more about troop levels after a progress report, expected in March or April, from the US ambassador in Baghdad and the commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus.