International sanctions delaying Iran’s nuke program ambitions: Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently in Abu Dhabi on a tour of Gulf countries, has said that Iran’s ambition to produce a nuclear weapon soon has been delayed by international sanctions.

“Iran has had technological problems that have made it slow down its timetable. The sanctions are working. Their program, from our best estimate, has been slowed down,” The New York Times quoted Clinton, as saying.

Her statement echoed Meir Dagan’s, Israel’s outgoing head of intelligence, earlier comments that Iran would not be able to produce a nuclear weapon before 2015. However, she did not detail the problems with Iran’s program, how long a delay they might cause, or the precise sources of her information.

“If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, won’t you believe you have to have a nuclear weapon too?” Clinton asked.

Raising the prospect of a disastrous nuclear arms race in the Middle East, she said, “It’s first and foremost in the interests of the region to persuade Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons.”

Yesterday, she had said that six world powers were planning to meet with Iran on January 20 in Istanbul, Turkey, to again try to persuade Tehran to negotiate over the nuclear program.

In December last year, a report had claimed that the Stuxnet superworm was responsible for sabotaging centrifuges at a uranium-enrichment plant in Iran. (ANI)