18:00GMT—1:00PM/EST
Washington, 17 February (WashingtonTV)—US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that Washington has no plans for military action against Iran over its nuclear program.
Speaking with Al-Arabiya television in Saudi Arabia, Clinton also said that the Obama administration hopes the United Nations will agree to the strongest possible sanctions against Iran.
Asked if the United States has ruled out military force against Iran, Clinton said that the focus was on “trying to change Iranian behavior”.
“Obviously, we don’t want Iran to become a nuclear weapons power, but we are not planning anything other than going for sanctions,” she added.
The United States and Israel have said that all options, including military force, remain on the table in dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
On Israel’s refusal to rule out force, Clinton said “there are many countries in the region who are very worried about Iran’s actions.”
But she stressed that Washington believes “the better approach is to join at the international community, to work together toward sanctions, to exert maximum pressure on the Iranians, and to try every way we can to change their thinking.”
Clinton said the sanctions should target in particular individuals and institutions connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, which she accused of supplanting the government.
“It is our assessment that increasingly, they’re making the decisions, and they are deeply involved in the economic life of Iran,” she said.
Clinton said that the increasing role of the Guards Corps was a factor in the negative response by Iran to the Obama administration’s outreach.
“When the military and the security forces begin to assert control and seem to be pushing the elected and the clerical leadership out of the way, that raises some serious issues,” she said.
Source: US State Department website
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