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Region worried about war risks with Trump's election: Iran's defence minister

World Sunday 11/December/2016 20:35 PM
By: Times News Service
Region worried about war risks with Trump's election: Iran's defence minister

Dubai: Donald Trump's election has led to unease over threats to peace in the region, Iran's defence minister said on Sunday, warning that a war would destroy Israel and the small states.
Trump's election victory has raised the prospect the United States will pull out of a nuclear pact it signed last year with Iran, which Barack Obama's administration has touted as a way to suspend Tehran's suspected drive to develop atomic weapons.
During his campaign, Trump called the nuclear pact a "disaster" and "the worst deal ever negotiated" and has signalled he will take a harder line on Iran.
This has led to unease in the region, Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
"Even though a businessman, the assistants that... (Trump) has chosen may map a different path for him, and this has led to unease," Dehghan told a security conference in Tehran, according to Mehr.
"Considering Trump's character and that he measures the cost of everything in dollars, it does not seem likely that he would take strong action against our country," he said.
"Enemies may want to impose a war on us based on false calculations and only taking into consideration their material capabilities...
"Such a war would mean the destruction of the Zionist regime (Israel)... and will engulf the whole region and could lead to a world war," Mehr quoted Dehghan as saying.
"Among other consequences of the war, would be the destruction of the city-states," Dehghan said.