"WASHINGTON, D.C. - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Monday warned the U.S. not to show weakness in Iraq, during an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, D.C.
In a region where "impressions are important," said Livni, countries must be careful not to demonstrate weakness and surrender to extremists.
The comments could be construed as expressing support for the Bush administration's policy of toughing out a war that is increasingly unpopular domestically.
"This is relevant concerning decisions on Iran, it is true regarding Iraq, and it is true throughout the Middle East," Livni said.
Livni said Iran was at the forefront of extremist threats to Israel, the greater Middle East and the world in general because of its nuclear ambitions.
"To address extremism is to address Iran," she said, urging tougher UN sanctions over its nuclear program. "It is a regime which denies the Holocaust while threatening the world with a new one."
"To those states who know the threat but still hesitate because of narrow economic or political interests, let me say this: History will remember."
Also addressing AIPAC, United States Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq would lead to disaster and chaos in the Middle East, with either Al-Qaida or Iran emerging dominant from a bloody sectarian battle.
Cheney laid out a dire sequence of events - all dangerous to Israel - that could arise if critics of the war, particularly those in Congress, mandate troop withdrawals or limit funding.
"A precipitous American withdrawal from Iraq would be a disaster for the United States and the entire Middle East," he said......"
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