The Associated Press reported that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, said, “The United States takes very seriously our security commitments in the Gulf region.”
Speaking after a meeting with Bahrain’s king, Adm. Mullen said, “There are real threats to peace and stability here, and we’ve made no secrets of our concerns about Iran.”
According to the Associated Press, Adm. Mullen’s statement that “we’re very ready” to counter the Iranian regime threat was “an unusually direct acknowledgment that the United States has contingency plans to counter Iran should it make a move.”
Mullen added, “From my perspective I see Iran continuing on this path to develop nuclear weapons, and I believe that that development and achieving that goal would be very destabilizing to the region.”
On November 28, prior to western negotiations with the Iranian regime in Geneva over its nuclear program, Adm. Mullen had told the US news network CNN that the Iranian regime “is still very much on a path to be able to develop nuclear weapons, including weaponizing them, putting them on a missile and being able to use them.”
He had added that US approach towards the regime should be “realistic” and look “at whether Iran is actually going to tell the truth, actually engage, and actually do anything.”