Bush: It's Iran's time to choose

"It is time for Iran to make a choice," Bush said at a convention of the American Legion US veterans group. "We've made our choice. We will continue to work closely with our allies to find a diplomatic solution, but there must be consequences for Iran's defiance and we must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," he stated.

Iran vowed defiantly on Thursday not to bow to Western pressure, hours before a UN Watchdog was expected to report Tehran had failed to meet a deadline to halt work which the West fears could help it build a nuclear bomb.

The West "needs to know that the Iranian nation won't fold under pressure," said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a speech he gave Thursday morning before a large audience in the city of Aromiya, which was broadcast on Iranian television.

During his speech, Bush responded to Ahamdinejad's statement: "The world now faces a grave threat from the radical regime in Iran," the president said. "We know the depth of suffering that Iran's sponsorship of terrorists has brought. And we can imagine how much worse it would be if Iran were allowed to acquire nuclear weapons."

Peretz: Iran openly preaches Israel's destruction

Bush described the current violence in the Middle East and the recently thwarted attack to blow up planes over the Atlantic Ocean as part of the same movement that resulted in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"As veterans you have seen this kind of enemy before," Bush said. "They are successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century. And history shows what the outcome will be.

"This war will be difficult. This war will be long. And this war will end in the defeat of the terrorists," Bush said.

In his meeting with senior defense officials, Peretz expressed hope that the UN Security Council will find "the necessary ways to make Iran obey to the international community's decisions. A nuclear Iran ruled by an extremist regime poses a threat to stability in the Middle East and the entire world.

Iran openly preaches the destruction of Israel, and supports terror across the Middle East. Iran supported Hizbullah in the turning of south Lebanon into a terror base and its supports Palestinian terror organizations, to prevent any chance of peace," he stated.