Iran number one challenge to US: Rice
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-10 09:10

Iran is the biggest challenge facing the United States, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in urging Congress to adopt a package aimed at promoting democracy in the Islamic republic.

Iran is the biggest challenge facing the United States, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seen here at the State Department in Washington DC 08 March 2006, said in urging Congress to adopt a package aimed at promoting democracy in the Islamic republic.[AFP]

"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran, whose policies are directed at developing a Middle East that would be 180 degrees different than the Middle East we would like to see develop," Rice told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"This is a country that is determined, it seems, to develop a nuclear weapon in defiance of the international community which is determined that they should not get one."

Rice accused Tehran of being "the central banker for terrorism" and of backing terrorist activites in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon.

Her comments came as Iran's hardline regime vowed not to abandon the country's nuclear program despite the possibility of sanctions by the UN Security Council.