Washington: On the eve of the Nuclear
Security Summit, the US on Sunday said the prospect of terrorists
getting nuclear material is the "biggest threat" and that it
wants to focus the world`s attention on outfits like al Qaeda
trying to get atomic material to cause "terrible havoc."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the two-day
Summit, an initiative of President Barack Obama, will focus on
nuclear terrorism and ways to control it.
The two-day Summit, to be attended by 47 world leaders
including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will begin on Monday
here.
"Part of the goal of the nuclear security summit is
to focus on the threat from nuclear terrorism. And we don`t
believe the threat from nuclear terrorism comes from states.
Our biggest concern is that terrorists will get nuclear
material," she told ABC news in an interview.
"The threat of nuclear attack, as we grew up with in
the Cold War, has diminished. The threat of nuclear terrorism
has increased.
"We want to get the world`s attention focused where we
think it needs to be, with these continuing efforts by al
Qaeda and others to get just enough nuclear material to cause
terrible havoc, destruction, and loss of life somewhere in the
world," she said.
Clinton also explained the administration`s position
on nuclear summit, the recent US-Russia New START Treaty and
Afghanistan.
"We fear North Korea and Iran because their behavior
as -- in the first case, North Korea being -- already having
nuclear weapons, and Iran seeking them -- is that they are
unpredictable.
They have an attitude toward countries like Israel,
like their other neighbors in the Gulf, that makes them a
danger," she said.
So, she said, the US was focusing on the two states,
but it is also very much concerned about nuclear material
falling into terrorists` hands.
"That`s a concern that we all share," Clinton said.
PTI
