"Loose talk of war" would only speed Iran towards attaining nuclear weapon: Obama

Washington, Mar 5 (ANI): US President Barack Obama has warned that any "loose talk of war" would only speed Iran towards attaining a nuclear weapon.

He made it clear that he did not believe that a strike on Iran would serve the interests of either the United States or Israel. Already, there is too much loose talk of war. Over the last few weeks such talk has only benefited the Iranian Government by driving up the price of oil, which they depend on to fund their nuclear program," The New York Times quoted Obama, as saying.

"For the sake of Israel's security, America's security and the peace and security of the world, now is not the time for bluster," he added.

Obama quoted President Theodore Roosevelt, saying: "Speak softly. Carry a big stick."

On Sunday, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich questioned Obama's Iran strategy, saying: "Israel is such a small country; it is so compact that two or three nuclear weapons would be equivalent to a second Holocaust."

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had said at a campaign stop near Atlanta, that: "If Barack Obama gets re-elected, Iran will have a nuclear weapon, and the world will change if that's the case."

However, Obama, who has often lamented the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003, made reference to European and American intelligence assessments that have found no evidence that Iran has decided to pursue a nuclear weapon.

Recent assessments by American spy agencies have also reaffirmed intelligence findings in 2007 and 2010 that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program.

"The United States and Israel both assess that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon," Obama said, promising to make sure that Iran's civilian nuclear agenda did not turn into a weapons program. (ANI)