By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : US president-elect Barack Obama has called Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon as unacceptable and said that the US has to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening.
“Let me state — repeat what I stated during the course of the campaign. Iran’s evelopment of a nuclear weapon I believe is unacceptable. And we have to mount a international effort to prevent that from happening,” Obama said at his first news conference since his election in Chicago Friday.
“Iran’s support of terrorist organizations I think is something that has to cease,” he added.
Obama was replying to a question whether he had responded to a letter of congratulations from Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first such communication since the Iranian revolution and how soon did he plan on sending low-level envoys to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, to see if a presidential-level talk would be productive.
“I am aware that the letter was sent… I will be reviewing the letter from President Ahmadinejad, and we will respond appropriately,” Obama said.
Cautioning against a knee-jerk response, he said: “It’s only been three days since the election. Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. I think we’ve got to think it through.”
“But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time,” Obama said clearly indicating that he would not dilate on foreign policy matter before he takes over as president.
“And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won’t be until January 20th.”