Media Reaction - G-8 Summit Meeting

UNCLAS STOCKHOLM 000501 SIPDIS SECSTATE FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/PPD, EUR/NB, EUR/PA, EUR/FO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO PINS PHUM PREF EUN SW SUBJECT: Media Reaction - G-8 Summit Meeting On July 11 the independent liberal Stockholm morning daily, "Dagens Nyheter" editorialized on "Holocaust 2.0": "Iranian warning signals to the U.S. and Israel have come thick and fast in the last week. A military attack against the Iranian republic would result in an attack against Tel Aviv and set fire to American interests in the region it was said on Tuesday.... "Israel, not the U.S., is facing the greatest threat. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an emotionally unstable anti-Semite with access to the nuclear weapon trigger. Talk about the worst nightmare for a Jewish state. And it is not just a diffuse, future threat. As early as in the next year Iran may have enough fissile material to be able to produce nuclear weapons. Therefore one in Washington and Tel Aviv are asking the question: What about a potential attack against the Iranian nuclear energy program? What will happen if we just wait and observe? "But in the wake of the, until now, disastrous war in Iraq it is difficult to have great confidence in the Bush administration's ability to handle the Iranian threat. However, the morally correct approach, in trying to prevent an unscrupulous regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, must not be called in question.... "Should Iran succeed with its nuclear weapons program we will, with great probability, witness a nuclear arms race in like-minded countries in the region.... "If diplomatic reprimands will be fruitless also in the future, we better prepare for the next phase. At a time when the Iranian threat against the surrounding world is beyond all control, military means may be the only alternative." SILVERMAN