‘Peaceful outcome possible on Iran’

WASHINGTON / BERLIN

US President Obama delivers his State of the Union address in Washington. AP photo

U.S. President Barack Obama said Jan. 24 that a peaceful outcome was still possible in the international standoff with Iran over its nuclear ambitions while he declined to rule out the military option. Obama also warned Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime’s days were numbered.

“Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal,” Obama said in his annual State of the Union policy address. “But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better,” the president said, Agence France-Presse reported. “And if Iran changes course and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations.”

“And in Syria, I have no doubt that the Assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change cannot be reversed, and that human dignity cannot be denied.”

Related to Iran and Syria crises, NATO’s top commander said Jan. 24 that NATO is not considering any involvement in Syria or Iran. “In terms of Syria, I can tell you from a NATO perspective, we are not conducting any planning, we are not doing any detailed analysis, we are simply monitoring the situation,” Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said.