Washington, February 08: The threat of a nuclear-armed Iran is “real” for the United States but Al-Qaeda poses an even greater danger, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday.
“In terms of a country, obviously a nuclear-armed country like North Korea or Iran pose both a real or a potential threat,” Clinton told CNN’s “State of the Union”, making it clear the Iranians don’t yet possess an atomic weapon.
“But I think that most of us believe the greater threats are the trans-national non-state networks,” she said, referring to Al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
Clinton voiced concerns about Al-Qaeda’s level of “connectivity” and warned that Osama bin Laden’s followers were increasing the sophistication of the attacks they were planning.
While Al-Qaeda was not getting any stronger and its capacity had been “degraded” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Clinton cautioned the terror network was evolving to become “more creative, more flexible, more agile.
“They are unfortunately a very committed, clever, diabolical group of terrorists who are always looking for weaknesses and openings and we just have to stay alert.”
“The biggest nightmare that any of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations within this syndicate of terror will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction,” Clinton said.
Clinton said it was “subject to some debate” how close Iran was to getting the bomb but suggested Tehran was purposefully stalling on what she described as a “very reasonable offer” from the international community.
The United States has not ruled out military action against Iran.
She gave the interview before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered Iran’s atomic chief on Sunday to begin higher uranium enrichment.
Iran says thousands of its patients, in need of post-surgery drug treatment with nuclear medicine, will suffer if domestic production dries up when a research reactor in Tehran runs out of fuel.
Ahmadinejad blamed the world powers for the stalemate over a UN-drafted nuclear fuel deal, but left the door open for possible negotiation over the proposal.
“We are still open to negotiations on the issue,” he said.
He also insisted that world powers accept exchanging Iran’s low-enriched uranium (LEU) for high purity 20 percent enriched uranium required as nuclear fuel for the Tehran reactor which makes medical isotopes.
—Agencies