ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon has been delayed by sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said here on Monday, making the strongest and most public claim by the Obama administration that its pressure campaign was hampering Iran’s nuclear ambitions, The New York Times reports.
“Iran has had technological problems that have made it slow down its timetable,” Mrs. Clinton said in a televised town hall meeting at a university here. “The sanctions are working,” she added. “Their program, from our best estimate, has been slowed down.”
Her blunt statement, after similar comments by Israeli and European officials, is sure to color the debate in the Middle East. Iran’s neighbors have watched its drive for nuclear status with increasing alarm, with some pressing the United States to act against Tehran soon.
Mrs. Clinton did not detail the problems with Iran’s program, how long a delay they might cause, or the precise sources of her information. But she contended that the difference between a one-year development cycle and a three- or four-year cycle did not alter the strategic choices confronting Iran’s neighbors or the rest of the world.
Speaking to students on the first day of a four-day visit to the region, Mrs. Clinton urged Arab states not to waver in enforcing sanctions. Abu Dhabi and Dubai, to which she traveled later on Monday, have curtailed their banking relationships with Iran, under pressure from the United States.
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