General Wesley Clark on Fox News Live
January 29, 2006
Transcript by Melange
Eric Shawn: Well, a major change, possibly on the horizon regarding Iran's nuclear program. This week Tehran and Moscow reportedly agreed to expand the number of countries participating in the plan to enrich Iran's uranium in Russia. This as the US and British leaders say they will exhaust all diplomatic options, though, before they turn to UN sanctions or military action.
Joining us to talk more about this, Fox News analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General Wesley Clark. General, welcome - thanks for being with us.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you Eric, good to be with you.
Eric Shawn: You know, let me read you a headline that really scares me - “Missiles ready for any attack warns Tehran”. They talked about the Shihab-3 that can hit our troops in Iraq, can hit our bases in the Persian Gulf, it's got a radius of 1,300 miles. What do we do with a regime that comes out and says “we're ready to launch” at the same time we're trying to negotiate with them?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, it's a complicated situation there and what they're trying to do is put their back up and warn us that this is not going to be an easy military option if we were to take it. We know it's not easy but we also know what weapons they have and there's no surprise to the men and women in the armed forces. They know exactly what they've got to plan against on this. I do think, though Eric, that it underscores the importance of going as far as we can diplomatically, as far as we can using other nations like Iran and Russia's agreement to try to forestall what looks like a mounting crisis. We don't want to have to use this military option.
Eric Shawn: You know, you talked about Russia and Iran, well Russia is building that billion dollar plant, they just sold a billion dollars worth of anti-aircraft missiles to protect the nuclear facilities. I cover the UN - I saw what happened during the Iraq debate. I think they're all bought off by economic interests. Can we really trust Russia to do the right thing and enrich Iran or are the Iranians just buying more time?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Yes, the Iranians are buying more time. There's no doubt about that. What we've got to do is come in on the heels of this agreement on the enrichment and say “look, now along with the enrichment, of course, you get rid of the centrifuges, you give up all your own capacity for enrichment” and we'll have a broadened inspection program and all that has to be part and parcel of the agreement and if it isn't, then it won't really assure us that they're not moving toward a nuclear capacity at a later stage. What we want to do is try to build on any agreement to make sure we've got our grips into the Iranian system with inspections so we have greater assurance that they're not pursuing a nuclear option.
Eric Shawn: I mean they lied to the UN. Lied to the UN for 18 years!
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's right.
Eric Shawn: Let's not forget that. Do you have any faith, General, that we can trust them that we are optimistic? And how do we trust, as President Reagan used to say - “trust but verify”?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: We've got to keep those UN inspectors in there. They've got to not accept the word. They've got to see it. They've got to have greater access. They've got to have greater ability to call no-notice inspections. In other words, if Iran wants to be trusted, it has to surrender some of the sovereignty that it's proud, right now, to try to protect.
Eric Shawn: Yeah, but…
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's the only way that they can try to prevent mounting crisis.
Eric Shawn: You know, General, with all due respect, I don't think they're going to do that. They're…they're going full speed ahead on what they want to do. And they say they're going to kick out the nuclear inspectors if it's referred to the security council so it seems they've got a nuclear gun/bomb/pistol to the world's head and there may be no way out of this.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You're right, Eric. I think that…I'm very worried too. I think they may have that pistol at the world's head but, you know, we also have to recognize that this is a long-term program by Iran. They're very sophisticated. They're playing many angles. If they see a stronger approach by not getting nuclear weapons, they could still turn off the nuclear program. What we've got to do is work with them - show them the carrots, show them the stick. We've clearly got the capacity to take out their nuclear capabilities but we don't yet have the answer to what happens afterwards.
Eric Shawn: That's, ah, that's the question. You're right. General Wesley Clark. Thank you, sir, for joining us on Sunday. Good to see you, as always.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Eric.
