Chavez says Bush belongs in asylum for WW3 comment
PARIS, Nov 20 (Reuters) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said today that US President George W Bush belonged in a mental asylum for referring to the possibility of World War Three if Tehran developed nuclear weapons.
The remark is the latest in a long line of insults the outspoken left-wing leader has levelled at Bush, whom he has also called ''the devil'', a genocidal assassin and a donkey.
On October 17, Bush warned that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three as he tried to shore up international opposition to Tehran amid Russian scepticism over whether Iran was really seeking nuclear weapons, as the West believes and Tehran denies.
''Bush spoke of the possibility of this Third World War and the use of the atom bomb,'' Chavez told a news conference in Paris, where he met his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.
''A Third World War? With an atom bomb? He said it, with an atom bomb. There would be no more world. The world would end.
Humanity would no longer exist,'' he said, speaking through an interpreter who translated his comments into French.
''I think he has to be put in an asylum. He has to be put in an asylum,'' said Chavez, an ally of Tehran, adding that Iran was not building nuclear weapons, echoing Iran's own denials.
On
October
17
Bush
told
a
news
conference
''We've
got
a
leader
in
Iran
who
has
announced
that
he
wants
to
destroy
Israel.''
''So
I've
told
people
that,
if
you're
interested
in
avoiding
World
War
111,
it
seems
like
you
ought
to
be
interested
in
preventing
them
from
having
the
knowledge
necessary
to
make
a
nuclear
weapon.''
REUTERS
DKS
BST0103