Special report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

Photo shows U.S. President George W. Bush (L) during an interview with Juan Williams of National Public Radio in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC.(AFP Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. President George W. Bush said his warning to Iran about its involvement in Iraq has no hint of invading threat, media Wednesday reported.

    "Nobody's talking about that," Bush said, "to say that defending ourselves in Iraq has some greater goal is just simply not the case."

    The president also acknowledged skepticism concerning U.S. intelligence about Iran, because Washington was wrong in accusing Iraq of harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

    "I'm like a lot of Americans that say, 'Well, if it wasn't right in Iraq, how do you know it's right in Iran,'" Bush said.

    On Monday, Bush said that the United States will respond "firmly" if Iran escalates its "military action" in strife-stricken Iraq.

    "If Iran escalates its military action in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and/or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly," Bush said in an interview with the National Public Radio.

    (Agencies)

Related: U.S. senators warn against war with Iran

    BEIJING, Jan. 31(Xinhuanet) -- U.S. Republican and Democratic senators Tuesday warned against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq.

    Sen. Barack Obama, a candidate for president in 2008, warned during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that senators of both parties will demand "clarity and transparency in terms of U.S. policy so that we don't repeat some of the mistakes that have been made in the past," a reference to the faulty intelligence underlying the U.S. invasion of Iraq. full story>>