“Notice I did not say a nuclear weapon. But they are determined to have a nuclear program ..."

Powell to Bloomberg/ here

"Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said new sanctions on Iran to persuade it to stop enriching uranium won’t work because the Islamic republic is “determined to have a nuclear program.”

“I don’t see a set of sanctions coming along that would be so detrimental to the Iranians that they are going to stop that program,” Powell said in an interview with Bloomberg special contributor Judy Woodruff. “So ultimately, the solution has to be a negotiated one.”

“The Iranians are determined to have a nuclear program,” Powell said in the interview, which will be broadcast on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” this weekend. “Notice I did not say a nuclear weapon. But they are determined to have a nuclear program, notwithstanding the last six or seven years of efforts on our part to keep them from having a nuclear program.”...

A Republican who endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 election, Powell said the president speaks to him “on a fairly regular basis,” usually by himself, and allows him to be candid....

Israel’s announcement that it would build 1,600 new apartments in east Jerusalem while U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden was visiting last week was a “bit of a slap in the face,” yet the U.S. needs to be “careful not to overreact,” said Powell, a retired Army general who previously served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Maybe out of this we can start moving forward,” Powell said...."