Military Action Remains Option against Iran's Nuclear Program: US Official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 21, 2003

Military Action Remains Option against Iran's Nuclear Program: US Official

The United States has not ruled out the military action to stop Iran from developing alleged nuclear weapons, an American senior official said Friday.

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The United States has not ruled out the military action to stop Iran from developing alleged nuclear weapons, an American senior official said Friday.

John Bolton, American undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said that such military action remainsan option to keep Iran from destabilizing the whole region.

"It has to be an option," he told the British Broadcasting Corporation. "Nuclear weapons are incredibly dangerous."

"When you couple the Iranian nuclear program with their aggressive efforts to expand the range of their ballistic missiles,they are bringing more and more of our friends and allies within range," he said.

But Bolton added that such a scenario was still far from what the US government is considering.

"The US president has repeatedly said that all options are on the table. But that is far, far from our minds," Bolton said.

"It is one of the reasons we have pressed the Russians so hard," he added.

The United States has been insisting that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, an allegation that Iran has strongly denied.

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