Bush says he would like Guantanamo to close
US President George Bush and European leaders urged Iran and North Korea today to give up military and nuclear ambitions that they said threaten each country’s neighbours and destabilise the world.
Bush also acknowledged European concerns about the 460 detainees the United States is holding at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said he wanted to see the prison camp shut down. He was speaking during an EU-US summit in Vienna.
The US president accused Iran of dragging its feet on a Western incentive package aimed at getting Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activity, and said North Korea faces further isolation from the international community if it test fires a long-range missile believed capable of reaching US soil.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that his country will respond to the proposal by mid-August.
“It shouldn’t take the Iranians that long to analyse what is a reasonable deal,” Bush said. “We’ll come to the table when they verifiably suspend. Period.”
The summit host, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel – whose country holds the rotating presidency of the 25-nation EU – said it would be best for Iran to agree to the proposal as soo as possible.
“This is the carrot. Take it,” Schuessel said at a joint news conference with Bush and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
Schuessel said Iran has reached a crossroads. He said Europe welcomes US involvement, particularly the recent signal that the United States is ready to join negotiations if Iran suspends enrichment activities.
“I think now is the right moment for Iran to take this offer to grab it and to negotiate,” Schuessel said.
On North Korea, Schuessel agreed with Bush that the communist country faces further isolation from the international community if it test fires a long-range missile believed capable of reaching the US.
“It should make people nervous when non-transparent regimes who have announced they have nuclear warheads, fire missiles,” Bush said. “This is not the way you conduct business in the world.”
Schuessel said Europe would support the US against North Korea if it test fires the missile.
“If that happens, there will be a strong statement and a strong answer from the international community. And Europe will be part of it. There’s no doubt,” said Schuessel.
There were a host of other issues on the US-EU agenda.
Across the 25-nation bloc, mounting discontent over the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, the campaign in Iraq and the purported existence of secret CIA terror prisons in Eastern Europe have threatened to eclipse the talks.
Bush acknowledged past disputes about the US-led invasion of Iraq.
“I can understand the differences ... but what’s past is past and what’s ahead is a hopeful democracy in the Middle East,” he said.
He also acknowledged European concerns about the Guantanamo detainees, but he said the group includes some dangerous people who need to be brought to justice.
“I understand their concerns,” Bush said. “I’d like to end Guantanamo. I’d like it to be over with.”
Bush said 200 detainees had been sent home, and that most of the remaining 460 are from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Afghanistan.
“There are some who need to be tried in US courts,” he said. “They’re cold-blooded killers. They will murder somebody if they are let out on the street.”
Barroso said the leaders also discussed how to reach a balanced conclusion to a global trade deal. The United States is among 149 nations trying to finish the international round of trade talks known as the Doha Round, named after the city in Qatar where they began.
Negotiators have missed several deadlines. There are disagreements over cutting farm barriers in Europe, the United States and other rich nations. Major developing countries, such as India and Brazil, also are refusing to significantly reduce trade barriers that protect their manufacturing and service industries.
“After the good exchange of views we had today during this summit, I’m convinced – I’m really convinced that it’s possible to have a successful outcome of the Doha talks,” Barroso said.
“And it’s crucially important from a trade point of view, from a global economic point of view, but also from a development point of view.”
Bush dismissed as “absurd” a recent poll by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press in which European nations said US involvement in Iraq was a worse problem than Iran and its nuclear programme.
While Bush scores low on popularity polls in Europe, Schuessel rose to his defence, which seemed to catch the American president by surprise.
“I think it’s grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, a lot of countries,” Schuessel said, adding that it was Bush who raised Guantanamo and other thorny issues.
About 1,200 students chanting “Bush Go Home!” rallied at a train station to protest at the US president’s visit to the Austrian capital, where 1,000 police officers were assigned to deal with demonstrators. Another 2,000 officers patrolled the city.
Leading the students was US anti-war campaigner Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq and energised the anti-war movement last summer with a protest outside Bush’s Texas ranch.
Demonstrators waved black flags, blew whistles, beat drums and shouted, “Hey, ho, Bush has got to go!” Others carried banners and signs that said “World’s No. 1 Terrorist” and “Islam is not the enemy.”
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