Russia criticizes U.S. vice president's Israel-Iran remarks

21:4507/07/2009

MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) -

Russia condemns remarks by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Israel could attack Iran if it saw fit, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden said on Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

There has been speculation that Israel could attack the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. Israel and Western powers suspect Iran of trying to build a nuclear weapon, while Iran says it needs the program for peaceful power generation.

"We are very surprised at these remarks by U.S. Vice President Biden. As we see, they are drastically out of line with the approaches that U.S. President Barack Obama is declaring regarding the Iranian nuclear program, in particular, on the U.S. readiness to enter a dialogue with Iran," spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Barack Obama effectively disavowed Biden's remarks.

In an interview with CNN he said the United States is "absolutely not" giving Israel a green light to attack Iran.

"We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this [the Iranian nuclear program] in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East," Obama said.

Vice President Biden did not give Israel green light to attack Iran over nukes, says President Obama

By Michael McAuliff, DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Updated Tuesday, July 7th 2009, 2:31 PM

President Barack Obama stressed that Vice President Biden wasn't giving Israel a free pass to attack Iran over nuclear weapons.

Washington - Vice President Biden was “absolutely not” giving Israel the green light to bomb Iran's nuke program, President Obama said Tuesday, emphatically stuffing a suggestion some took from his No. 2’s words over the weekend.

Biden told ABC News on Sunday that the United States “cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do,” and added: “Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

But asked today if Biden was giving Israel the go ahead, Obama said no way.

“Absolutely not,” Obama said on CNN, explaining that he thought Biden was just laying out a basic reality of international relations with any other state.

“I think Vice President Biden stated a categorical fact, which is we can’t dictate to other countries what their security interests are,” Obama said. “What is also true is that it is the policy of the United States to try to resolve the issue of Iran’s nuclear capabilities in a peaceful way through diplomatic channels. That is our policy.”

“I have been talking about this for the last two years,” Obama added. “We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and solve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East.”

Still, Biden’s words seemed to many to be offering a freer hand to Israel.

“Whether we agree or not, they’re entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that,” Biden said.

“If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice,” Biden said.