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Bush: Revealing details of attack on Syrian site was message to Iran By Haaretz Staff and Reuters WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday he released U.S. intelligence about the nuclear facility that Israel bombed in Syria in September so as to put pressure on North Korea and send a message to Iran that it could not hide its own nuclear program. Bush broke months of silence on the matter after his administration went public last week with accusations that Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korean help when the facility was bombed by the IAF. Advertisement He said the disclosure, including photos and other information the CIA insisted showed the facility's potential for nuclear weapons purposes, was meant to "advance certain policy objectives. "One would be to the North Koreans, to make it abundantly clear that we may know more about you than you think," Bush told a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. Bush said the intelligence had been withheld at first because of a risk of "confrontation" or "retaliation," an apparent reference to a possible Syrian military response to the Israeli airstrike, but that such concerns had receded He acknowledged the disclosure was intended to pressure North Korea to come clean on all of its nuclear activities and said it was also meant to send a tough message to Syria, which the United States has tried to isolate diplomatically. "And then we have an interest in sending a message to Iran and the world for that matter about just how destabilizing nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East," Bush said. The American president said he is still optimistic a peace deal can be achieved between Israel and the Palestinians before he leaves office in January, but he noted that "peace is undermined by Hamas in the Middle East. They're the ones who are undermining peace. They're the ones whose foreign policy objective is the destruction of Israel. They're the ones who are trying to create enough violence to stop the advance of the two-party state solution. They are a significant problem to world peace - or Middle Eastern peace. "And that's the reason I'm not talking to them... Unfortunately, they're getting help; in Syria, they get help. There's rumors about Iranian help." Bush said he had not spoken to former president Jimmy Carter following the latter's recent visit to the region and meetings with leading Hamas officials, adding that he had not seen any signs that Hamas was changing. The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency has criticized the United States for waiting until this month to share its intelligence about the September raid and U.S. lawmakers have also complained about the delay. Disclosure 'not the same as proof' A diplomat close to the UN nuclear watchdog and outside analysts have said the U.S. disclosure did not amount to proof of an illicit arms program because there was no sign of a reprocessing plant needed to convert spent fuel from the facility into bomb-grade plutonium. Under a six-nation deal reached with North Korea in September 2005, the poor, communist state committed to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs in return for economic aid and diplomatic benefits. In return, Washington is to drop two sets of sanctions stemming from Pyongyang's presence on the U.S. state sponsors of terrorism list and the U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act. But the agreement has been stalled by Pyongyang's failure to produce a declaration of its nuclear programs that was due at the end of last year. Washington is leading an international campaign against Iran over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Tehran insists it wants nuclear technology for peaceful civilian purposes. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Clear, present danger Survey : 52% of youth believe Israel faces existential threat. Feeling guilty Europe's criticism of Israel is more than just anti-Semitism.

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