Washington, April 12: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that Iran is not on the threshold of producing a nuclear weapon and that its program was progressing slower than expected.
“I’d just say, and it’s our judgment here, they are not nuclear capable,” Gates said in an interview. “Not yet.”
Speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gates said that Iran was “continuing to make progress” in a nuclear program that Washington suspects is a clandestine effort to develop an atomic arsenal.
“It’s going slower… than they anticipated. But they are moving in that direction,” he said.
Asked to compare the danger posed by Iran armed with an atomic bomb or with the ability to produce one, Gates said: “How far have they gone? If their policy is to go (to) the threshold, but not assemble a nuclear weapon, how do you tell that they have not assembled?
“So, it becomes a serious verification question.”
The Pentagon chief also denied that the US administration was resigned to Iran becoming a nuclear-armed power.
“We have not… drawn that conclusion at all. And in fact, we’re doing everything we can to try and keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons,” he said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who appeared along with Gates on television political talk shows, argued that Washington’s “patience” had helped build international support for sanctions against Iran.
Clinton told NBC that “what we have found over the last months, because of our strategic patience, and our willingness to keep on this issue, is that countries are finally saying, ‘You know, I kind of get it… they’re the ones who shut the door, and now we have to do something.'”
Clinton and Gates said a new arms control deal with Russia and a revised US nuclear policy would bolster President Barack Obama’s diplomatic efforts to isolate Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs.
In a policy shift, the Obama administration said on Tuesday it would only use atomic weapons in “extreme circumstances” and would not attack non-nuclear states that complied with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
But Clinton and Gates underlined that Iran and North Korea were seen as exceptions because of their defiance of UN resolutions, and that using US nuclear weapons could not be ruled out.
Asked why Iran and North Korea were considered exceptions, Gates said: “Well, because they’re not in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. So for them all bets are off. All the options are on table.”
Clinton added that if the United States came under biological attack, “then all bets are off.”
“We leave ourselves a lot of room for contingencies,” she said.
Meanwhile Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed the US ‘nuclear threat’.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran will officially complain to the United Nations regarding Obama’s “threats” after 225 members of parliament asked the government to take up the issue.
Khamenei, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s armed forces and final decision maker on key policy issues, warned a meeting of the military’s top brass on Sunday to be more “alert” about such threats.
“He (Obama) has implicitly threatened Iranians with nuclear weapons,” state television quoted Khamenei as saying.
“These comments are very strange and the world should not ignore them because in the 21st century… the head of a state is threatening a nuclear attack,” said Iran’s spiritual guide.
“The US president’s statements are disgraceful. Such comments harm the US and they mean that the US government is wicked and unreliable.”
“After 30 years, the Iranian nation has shown that it is more resilient and strong and has the ability to stand against any kind of threat,” the cleric said.
“Our armed forces must also be alert towards such threats and take their training seriously.”
—Agencies