WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama will tell the United
Nations Tuesday that the United States will “do what we must” to prevent Iran
from getting a nuclear weapon, according to excerpts from his speech.
He also planned to address
the Middle East turmoil sparked by an offensive anti-Islam Internet video and
the killing of the US ambassador to Libya in a wide-ranging speech just six
weeks before the November 6 US election.
“Make no mistake: a
nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained. It would threaten
the elimination of Israel, the security of Gulf nations, and the stability of
the global economy,” Obama was to tell the UN General Assembly, according to speech
excerpts released by the White House.
“That is why a coalition of
countries is holding the Iranian government accountable. And that is why the
United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear
weapon.”
Obama also planned to address
the deadly protests that erupted across the Middle East in response to an
amateurish American-made Internet video that insulted the prophet Mohammed.
“Today, we must affirm that
our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens, and not by his
killers,” he says, referring to the US envoy killed with three other Americans
in an attack on the Benghazi consulate.
“Today, we must declare
that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United Nations.”
“There are no words that
excuse the killing of innocents. There is no video that justifies an attack on
an Embassy. There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a
restaurant in Lebanon, or destroy a school in Tunis, or cause death and
destruction in Pakistan.”
Six weeks ahead of the
presidential election, Obama has faced a barrage of criticism from Republican
rival Mitt Romney over his handling of the protests.
The White House insisted
ahead of the UN address that it would not be a campaign speech, but the event
will allow Obama to wield the power of an incumbent to present his foreign
policy platform on a world stage.
Obama will spend only a day
in New York — without the normal meetings with world leaders — before heading
back to the campaign trail.
Romney on Monday accused
Obama — who had spoken of “bumps in the road” following the Arab Spring
uprisings — of minimizing the murder of the four Americans in Benghazi in the
attack two weeks ago.
“When the president was
speaking about bumps in the road he was talking about the developments in the
Middle East, and that includes an assassination,” Romney told NBC News.
“It includes a Muslim
Brotherhood individual becoming president of Egypt, it includes Syria being in
tumult, it includes Iran being on the cusp of having nuclear capability, it
includes Pakistan being in commotion.”
Obama polls well on foreign
policy, but the Democratic narrative — anchored to the killing of Osama bin
Laden and the withdrawal from Iraq — has been complicated by the violent
protests of the last two weeks.
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