Iran one to three years away from nuclear bomb: Mullen

I / Washington July 08, 2009, 13:43 IST

Iran is just one to three years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb and the clock is fast ticking for the international community to prevent this from happening, a top US military official has said.

"Where we are challenged here is the timeframe — which depending on who you talk to, the estimates of when they would develop a nuclear weapon and again based on both your assumptions and who you talk to it's been one to three years. It's sort of in that kind of timeframe," Mullen told a Washington-based think tank.

Concerned that time is fast running out to prevent this eventuality, Mullen said: "I believe Iran is very focused on developing this capability."

Iran acquiring nuclear weapons will be a very destabilising development, Mullen told a luncheon meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Often times I get — another question is the whole strike option piece of that. I also think that would be very destabilising because of them — actually in both cases, certainly a strike or them getting the weapon — those are hugely significant in and of themselves," Mullen said.

But, he said, with those kinds of possibilities there are unintended consequences that are very difficult to predict "in a highly volatile part of the world and I worry as much about that as well". "So that's why I talk about this very narrow space that we have to work towards an objective of not achieving that capability," Mullen said.

The top US military official said he is in touch with his counterparts in several countries who share the concerns on the issue.

"We've worked with our Gulf partners to look at the development of regional defense capability. And I see they are very committed to that and expanding that capability over time," he said.

Mullen said he was very concerned about Iran developing nuclear weapons, their funding and sponsoring terrorism, focusing that support on Hezbollah, Hamas, et cetera, being a destabilising influence in the region.

"I believe there's a need to certainly reach out and engage in dialogue with them. And that's obviously up to the political leadership," he said.