(AFP) ? Apr 11, 2010
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday the United States could not rule out using nuclear weapons if it came under biological attack, saying in that case "all bets are off."
Both Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in joint television interviews that Iran and North Korea represented exceptions to the limits on a US nuclear response, as both have defied UN resolutions on their atomic programs.
"We leave ourselves a lot of room for contingencies," Clinton said.
"If we can prove that a biological attack originated in a country that attacked us, then all bets are off," Clinton said in an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation."
Clinton was referring to a new US nuclear policy unveiled last week that restricts the use of atomic weapons against non-nuclear states that comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Asked why Iran and North Korea were considered exceptions, Gates said: "Well, because they're not in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. So for them, all bets are off. All the options are on table."
Clinton and Gates said a new arms control deal with Russia and the revised nuclear policy would bolster President Barack Obama's diplomatic leverage as he seeks to isolate Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs.
Both cabinet officers rejected criticism from some Republicans in Congress that Obama's approach had sent a signal of weakness, and that cuts to the nuclear arms stockpile undermined US "deterrence."
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WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons.
But the president said in an interview that he was carving out an exception for ?outliers like Iran and North Korea? that have violated or renounced the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation.
Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions. To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary.
Mr. Obama?s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors and seeks to revamp the nation?s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China.
It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.
Those threats, Mr. Obama argued, could be deterred with ?a series of graded options,? a combination of old and new conventional weapons. ?I?m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure,? he said in the interview in the Oval Office.
White House officials said the new strategy would include the option of reconsidering the use of nuclear retaliation against a biological attack, if the development of such weapons reached a level that made the United States vulnerable to a devastating strike.
Mr. Obama?s new strategy is bound to be controversial, both among conservatives who have warned against diluting the United States? most potent deterrent and among liberals who were hoping for a blanket statement that the country would never be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Mr. Obama argued for a slower course, saying, ?We are going to want to make sure that we can continue to move towards less emphasis on nuclear weapons,? and, he added, to ?make sure that our conventional weapons capability is an effective deterrent in all but the most extreme circumstances.?
The release of the new strategy, known as the Nuclear Posture Review, opens an intensive nine days of nuclear diplomacy geared toward reducing weapons. Mr. Obama plans to fly to Prague to sign a new arms-control
The release of the new strategy, known as the Nuclear Posture Review, opens an intensive nine days of nuclear diplomacy geared toward reducing weapons. Mr. Obama plans to fly to Prague to sign a new arms-control agreement with Russia on Thursday and then next week will host 47 world leaders in Washington for a summit meeting on nuclear security.
The most immediate test of the new strategy is likely to be in dealing with Iran, which has defied the international community by developing a nuclear program that it insists is peaceful but that the United States and its allies say is a precursor to weapons. Asked about the escalating confrontation with Iran, Mr. Obama said he was now convinced that ?the current course they?re on would provide them with nuclear weapons capabilities,? though he gave no timeline.
He dodged when asked whether he shared Israel?s view that a ?nuclear capable? Iran was as dangerous as one that actually possessed weapons.
?I?m not going to parse that right now,? he said, sitting in his office as children played on the South Lawn of the White House at a daylong Easter egg roll. But he cited the example of North Korea, whose nuclear capabilities w