Washington: A top US military official feels
that a nuclear Iran would destabilise the Middle East and
could push the countries in the region in a race to acquire
atomic weapons.
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs
of Staff, said the nations in the Middle East and Gulf could
follow the pattern of Pakistan which went on a hunt for
nuclear weapons after India conducted its first nuclear test
in early 1970s.
"I think the whole issue of nuclear weapons has got to
stay front and center, because more and more countries are
seeking them, and as more countries seek them, additional
countries want them. I mentioned Pakistan. All you have to do
is go back to India getting nuclear weapons, Pakistan
developing them thereafter," he said.
"So in Iran, for instance, one of the things that I am
extremely concerned about is their getting a nuclear weapon
capability and then other countries in that region, given the
threat that they feel from Iran, doing the same," Mullen said
at the Junior Statesman Summer School Programme in Virginia
yesterday.
"So it becomes a proliferation issue, and I think we have
got to start to contain that and make decisions and sign up to
strategic direction with other countries that reduces that
threat and doesn`t increase it," he said.
Bureau Report
