Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today that the US would contain a nuclear-armed Iran in order to protect other Middle East countries. The statement was a tacit acknowledgment by the US of Iran’s advances in nuclear technology and an official announcement of US intentions of coming to terms with a nuclear Iran.
Until today, the official US position shared by European powers was that Iran would not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Clinton’s statement was a radical departure from this policy.
"We want Iran to calculate what I think is a fair assessment: that if the United States builds a defense umbrella over the region, if we do even more to develop the military capacity of those in the Gulf, it is unlikely that Iran will be any stronger or safer because they won't be able to intimidate and dominate as they apparently believe they can once they have a nuclear weapon," Clinton said during an interview with Thai TV [AFP, 23 July].
Clinton’s statement immensely helps the hardline positions of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenie and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, regarding the country’s nuclear policy.
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