Bolton to Iran: "Put Up or Shut Up" [View All]

"The Iranians don't have an infinite time to respond to this offer," Bolton assured Cavuto. "They need to take time to look at it seriously, but then we expect an answer, and we're not going to be fooled into the pattern that they've followed the past couple of years where they've admitted, quite publicly, that they deceived the Europeans, and that they used the cover of negotiations to perfect their uranium enrichment process. We're not going to permit that again."

Cavuto then asked, "What if none of this works... there is always what some would say is the ?Israeli Option' - they dealt with Iraq with this technology 26 years ago. Is it going to be Israel that settles it?"

Their conversation went like this:

Bolton:The president's made it very clear he wants to resolve the Iranian nuclear weapons program though peaceful and diplomatic means, but he's also said that Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable.

Cavuto: But unacceptable means that if it keeps going on you're going to do something about it . . .

Bolton: No option is taken off the table.

Cavuto: Military as well?

Bolton: Exactly.

Cavuto: Unilateral military action?

Bolton: Secretary Rice made that point . . . that's why . . .

Cavuto: That we would act alone if we had to?

Bolton: That's why he says no option is taken off the table. But it's also why the president has reached out to President Putin and other leaders in the past couple of days to say, "We're making a significant step here" - that will be criticized by many of the president's staunchest supporters here at home, but he's taking this step to show strength and American leadership. He's doing it to say "We gave Iran this last chance to show they are serious when they say ?We don't want nuclear weapons.'" This is "put up or shut up" time for Iran.

Cavuto then said he feels Iran is flouting our demands - that Iran thinks the U.S. is bogged down with other military actions around the world and it can never really get tough.

Bolton responded that the president knows what he means when he said he isn't taking any options off the table. "And I come back to the point that he has said in public and private: ?It's unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons.' He is a man of his word."