Military action to boost n-plan: US

Nov 18, 2010 |

Washington, Nov. 17: The US secretary of defence, Mr Robert Gates said on Tuesday that military action would not stop Iran’s nuclear programme and instead would only make it “deeper and more covert.”

Mr Gates told a conference that military action would offer only a “short-term solution” to the thorny issue of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Western nations have accused Tehran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, something Iran vehemently denies.

Military action against the Iranian government, which has refused global calls to rein in its suspect nuclear enrichment programme, would “bring together a divided nation, and make them committed to get nuclear weapons,” Mr Gates said.

He said there were signs that the latest economic sanctions had hit Iran hard and created tensions between the country’s supreme leader and the President, Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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