President George W. Bush vowed on Wednesday the United States would protect Israel militarily if needed against Iran, and denounced Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "menacing talk" against Israel.
In an interview with Reuters, the US leader said "I am concerned about a person that, one, tries to rewrite the history of the Holocaust, and two, has made it clear that his intentions are to destroy Israel."
"Israel is a solid ally of the United States, we will rise to Israel's defense if need be. So this kind of menacing talk is disturbing," Bush stressed.
Asked if he meant the United States would rise to Israel's defence militarily, Bush said: "You bet, we'll defend Israel."
Bush said in his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday night that the world must stop Iran joining the list of nuclear-armed nations. "The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions -- and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons," he said.
