FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            CONTACT: John Donnelly
June 4, 2009                                                                                                    (202) 225-2276

Burton Says Israel's Right to Exist, Cessation of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program Must Be Guaranteed Before U.S. Condones Iranian Nuclear  Power Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Shortly after President Obama spoke in Cairo, Egypt,  this morning, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), Ranking Member of the Committee on  Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia,  appeared on Fox and Friends to challenge President Obama's posture  towards the Iranian nuclear program.

Click here to watch Rep. Burton's interview on Fox and Friends.

Partial Transcript:
Rep. Dan Burton - "Iran is developing a nuclear program. [President  Obama] said that he would allow that for peaceful purposes, but, at the  same time, they are not complying with the nuclear Non-Proliferation  Treaty. They're not allowing inspections, and there's a great many of us  who believe they are developing nuclear weapons.  "And so when [President Obama] starts talking about a nuclear-free  world, he ought to be talking about, in my opinion, Iran not going ahead  with their nuclear program unless there's absolute, complete guarantees  of Israel's right to exist--number one--and number two, that there's not going to be any weapons program, and that can be guaranteed, and I don't
believe that's the case right now.  "[President of Iran, Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad has said one of his top goals is to destroy Israel completely and he's developing a nuclear program and we believe it's a nuclear weapons program. So when you are talking about doing away with nuclear weapons, you've got to make sure it's all-inclusive, and Iran is not stopping. And I certainly don't want them to go ahead with their nuclear program unless we know for sure, without any doubt, it's not going to be used for weapons purposes.

"A lot of [President Obama's speech] was very good but when he talks about the Middle East and Iran, it just doesn't make any sense right now. There is no way to guarantee that Iran is not developing a nuclear weapons program, and I believe they are. And Israel is threatened severely. Israel has reached out to the Muslim world by giving Gaza back and they've even talked about a Palestinian state. But all of these entities- Hamas, Hezbollah, and others--have said Israel's right to exist should not be guaranteed. In fact they've talked about Israel being destroyed time and again. And so, Iran's developing this nuclear
weapons program, and it's very troubling that he said he thought they ought to go ahead with their program right now."

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