WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush on Wednesday rejected new talks on Iraq with Iran or Syria and, in a direct challenge to Tehran, said Iranians "can do better" than President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"My message to the Iranian people is: You can do better than to have somebody try to rewrite history. You can do better than somebody who hasn't strengthened your economy," Bush said in a year-end press conference.
"And you can do better than having somebody who's trying to develop a nuclear weapon that the world believes you shouldn't have. There's a better way forward," said the US president.
Bush said Washington was "working hard" to get a UN Security Council resolution punishing Iran for refusing to halt sensitive nuclear work that the West charges feeds efforts to develop atomic weapons, and reiterated that Tehran must freeze such activities if it wants talks with the United States.
"We made perfectly clear to them what it takes to come to the table. And that is a suspension of their enrichment program," said the president, who has come under heavy pressure to negotiate with Iran on the situation in Iraq.
The United States accuses Tehran of feeding the violence there, saying it sees Iranian fingerprints on Shiite militias and the improvised explosive devices like roadside bombs that have killed many US soldiers.
But Washington has taken heart from Iranian elections for municipal councils and a powerful religious assembly that saw Ahmadinejad loyalists suffer setbacks at the hands of more moderate candidates in a number of key races, including for seats on the Tehran city council.
And Bush seized on a recent Ahmadinejad-hosted conference on the Holocaust that featured several revisionists who deny the mass slaughter of Jews during World War II.
"I was amazed that once again there was this conference about the Holocaust that heralded a really backward view of the history of the world. And all that said to me was is that the leader in Iran is willing to say things that really hurts his country and further isolates the Iranian people," said Bush.
The Iranian people "have got a leader who constantly sends messages to the world that Iran is out of step with the majority of thinkers, that Iran is willing to become isolated, to the detriment of the people," said Bush.
The US president also dismissed calls for more talks with Syria, which Washington accuses of letting extremists into Iraq and undermining Lebanon's fragile democracy by funding and training the militant Hezbollah group.
"We've suggested to them that they no longer allow Saddamists to send money and arms across their border into Iraq to fuel some of the violence that we see," he said. "They're not unreasonable requests."
Bush praised Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora for showing "a lot of tenacity and toughness in the face of enormous pressure from Syria, as well as Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran."
"What I would suggest: that, if they are interested in better relations with the United States, that they take some concrete, positive steps that promote peace, as opposed to instability," said Bush.
