Obama warns U.S. will ?do what we must? on Iran

President Barack Obama addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York??NEW YORK - Exactly six weeks before election day, President Barack Obama stood on the world stage Tuesday and warned Iran that the United States will "do what we must" to stop Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.

In a speech to the annual U.N. General Assembly here, Obama also delivered what amounted to the opposite of an apology for America, saying that the U.S. is a model for "Arab Spring" countries groping their way uncertainly towards democracy.

The president, under fire from Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for his handling of Iran's atomic ambitions, dedicated part of his 30-minute speech to warning the Islamic republic that he cannot live with a nuclear-armed Tehran.

"Make no mistake: a nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained," Obama said.

"It would threaten the elimination of Israel, the security of Gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy. It risks triggering a nuclear-arms race in the region, and the unraveling of the non-proliferation treaty," Obama continued. "That's why the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

The president's stern comments closely echoed his past warnings, and stopped short of drawing the clear "red line" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought from Washington.

(Romney has at times taken a tougher line. In a July speech in Jerusalem, he declared that "Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons capability presents an intolerable threat to Israel, to America, and to the world." The key word there was "capability"?not an actual nuclear weapon, but the ability to build one. That lined the Republican up more closely with Netanyahu.)

As violent demonstrations continue across the Muslim world, Obama also denounced the Internet video mocking Islam that, in part, has fueled the turmoil, calling it?"crude and disgusting." But he explained that he could not simply ban it?and scolded those who denounce anti-Muslim speech but stay quiet when the target is Christianity.

"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the image of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied," he said, in an apparent reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Obama noted that freedom of speech means he can condemn, but not ban, the video. "As president of our country, and commander-in-chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day," he said, drawing laughter from the audience of dignitaries. "And I will always defend their right to do so."

Obama also paid tribute to the slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, killed along with three colleagues in what his administration has designated a terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11.

Stevens "embodied the best of America," the president said. "Today, we must reaffirm that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens, and not by his killers."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-warns-u-must-iran-152753460--election.html

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