Here we go again! The whirlwind of rhetoric is reaching a fever pitch!
Rumsfeld Says Iran May Have Nuclear Weapons Soon
Reuters -- 6:44 AM ET June 11, 2003
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday Iran was fast approaching a point where it may have nuclear weapons, although it did not appear to have any at present.
"The intelligence community in the United States and around the world currently assess that Iran does not have nuclear weapons," he told a meeting with students in the southern German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
"The assessment is that they do have a very active program and are likely to have nuclear weapons in a relatively short period of time."
Iran has denied developing nuclear weapons but has been accused by Washington of violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by using undeclared nuclear material to test a uranium enrichment system.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has also accused Tehran of failing to declare it had imported uranium in 1991 or to show where and how it was processed.
Rumsfeld, on a brief visit to Germany to attend an anniversary ceremony at a U.S.-German security policy center, also said the United States would not tolerate attempts by Iran to promote a religious government in neighboring Iraq.
"The efforts by Iran to try to make Iraq become a model of Iran with a small group of clerics taking over the country and controlling it, we're not going to let happen," he said.
"We're going to actively oppose any Iranian influence in that country that attempts to make Iraq an Iran-type model and we'll do it with words to start with and we'll do it energetically," he said.
Rumsfeld also urged more international cooperation to counter "rogue states" that allegedly have weapons of mass destruction, singling out North Korea.
"Take proliferation. It is not a problem that individual nations can handle by themselves," Rumsfeld said in prepared remarks from a speech he was due to give later.
"We know that North Korea is the world's foremost proliferator of ballistic missile technology. Now they have stated that they may not only build but also sell nuclear weapons and materials," he said.
The remarks were the latest in a long series of U.S. verbal attacks on North Korea, which said earlier this week it wanted to build up its nuclear weapons capability to cut its conventional forces and divert funds to prop up its economy.
Rumsfeld Says Iran May Have Nuclear Weapons Soon
Reuters -- 6:44 AM ET June 11, 2003
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday Iran was fast approaching a point where it may have nuclear weapons, although it did not appear to have any at present.
"The intelligence community in the United States and around the world currently assess that Iran does not have nuclear weapons," he told a meeting with students in the southern German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
"The assessment is that they do have a very active program and are likely to have nuclear weapons in a relatively short period of time."
Iran has denied developing nuclear weapons but has been accused by Washington of violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by using undeclared nuclear material to test a uranium enrichment system.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has also accused Tehran of failing to declare it had imported uranium in 1991 or to show where and how it was processed.
Rumsfeld, on a brief visit to Germany to attend an anniversary ceremony at a U.S.-German security policy center, also said the United States would not tolerate attempts by Iran to promote a religious government in neighboring Iraq.
"The efforts by Iran to try to make Iraq become a model of Iran with a small group of clerics taking over the country and controlling it, we're not going to let happen," he said.
"We're going to actively oppose any Iranian influence in that country that attempts to make Iraq an Iran-type model and we'll do it with words to start with and we'll do it energetically," he said.
Rumsfeld also urged more international cooperation to counter "rogue states" that allegedly have weapons of mass destruction, singling out North Korea.
"Take proliferation. It is not a problem that individual nations can handle by themselves," Rumsfeld said in prepared remarks from a speech he was due to give later.
"We know that North Korea is the world's foremost proliferator of ballistic missile technology. Now they have stated that they may not only build but also sell nuclear weapons and materials," he said.
The remarks were the latest in a long series of U.S. verbal attacks on North Korea, which said earlier this week it wanted to build up its nuclear weapons capability to cut its conventional forces and divert funds to prop up its economy.
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