Bush 'committed' to Israel security

AAP
May. 05, 2006

PRESIDENT George W. Bush said overnight that the United States has an "unshakeable" commitment to defend Israel, which has faced outspoken threats from Iran's hardline leader.

"America's commitment to Israel's security is strong, enduring and unshakeable," Bush said in a speech in Washington to the influential American Jewish Committee, which is marking its 100th anniversary.

He said the United States and Israel were "natural allies and these ties will never be broken".

Amid a mounting international dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, its conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has stepped up anti-Israeli rhetoric. In October he said that the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map".

President Bush said "we are concerned because the Iranian regime is repressing its people, sponsoring terrorists, destabilising the region, threatening Israel and defying the world with its ambitions for nuclear weapons.

"American will continue to rally the world to confront these threats."

The United States is leading a bid to make the UN Security Council take action against Iran over its nuclear programme, which Washington and its allies fear hides an attempt to make an atomic bomb.

Iran insists its programme is peaceful.