Sen. Barack Obama urged Iran Friday to "end its illicit nuclear program" or face increased pressure from a unified international community, and he warned Tehran not to "wait for the next president" before accepting proposals to resolve a stalemate with Western countries. In a joint news conference after conferring with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president highlighted the "extraordinarily grave situation" resulting from Iran's pursuit of a uranium enrichment program, which the United States and its allies fear could be used eventually to build nuclear weapons. The Illinois senator said he found "uniform concern about Iran" in his meetings with leaders in the Middle East and Europe during a seven-country tour that concludes in Britain Saturday.
Obama also said that "Afghanistan is a war that we have to win" because al-Qaeda and the radical Islamic Taliban movement cannot be allowed to establish new havens for planning "terrorist attacks . . . that could affect Paris or New York."
"So we don't have a choice," Obama said. "We've got to finish the job." He said the United States "needs to send two additional brigades at least" to Afghanistan and praised Sarkozy for his willingness to send more French troops to the country.
A day after a speech in Berlin before an estimated 200,000 people, Obama used the news conference to press his call for greater U.S.-European cooperation and to portray a possible Obama administration as one that would listen to its allies and seek consensus in dealing with problems, such as global warming, that require an international effort.