US: President George Bush's choice to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary has warned against a US attack on Iran, which he said could have a "dramatic" impact on American security.
Former CIA director Robert Gates told the Senate armed services committee that the US should only consider attacking Iran as an "absolute last resort" if Washington's vital interests were threatened.
"We have seen in Iraq that once war is unleashed it becomes unpredictable; the consequences of a military conflict with Iran could be quite dramatic. Therefore, I would counsel against military action except as a last resort and if we felt our vital interests were threatened," he said.
The Bush administration has maintained consistently that military action against Iran remains "on the table" as an option for preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
Dr Gates also said he would oppose an attack on Syria, which he warned could have dramatic consequences across the Middle East.
"It would give rise to greater anti-Americanism than we have seen to date. It would immediately complicate our relations with every country in the region," he said.
Answering senators' questions during a hearing to confirm his appointment as defence secretary, Dr Gates admitted that the US was not winning the war in Iraq, contradicting Mr Bush's statement on October 25th that "we're winning and we will win".
He warned that if Iraq was not stabilised within the next year or two, the conflict there could engulf the region as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and Turkey intervened to protect their interests.
"Our course over the next year or two will determine whether the American and Iraqi people and the next president of the United States will face a slowly but steadily improving situation in Iraq and in the region or will face the very real risk, and possible reality, of a regional conflagration," he said.
The hearing was mostly non-confrontational as senators praised Dr Gates for his candour in answering their questions and the nominee promised to work towards a bipartisan approach to defence issues.
Before his nomination, Dr Gates was a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which will report today on options for a change of US policy towards Iraq.
He played down the report's significance, however, saying it would not represent the last word on the issue. "It's my impression that, frankly, there are no new ideas on Iraq. The list of tactics, the list of strategies, the list of approaches is pretty much out there. The question is, is there a way to put pieces of those different proposals together?" he said.
Although Dr Gates said he was open to all proposals to improve the situation in Iraq, he rejected Democratic calls to set a date for the withdrawal of US troops, whom he said could remain there for a long time.
"It seems to me that the United States is going to have to have some kind of presence in Iraq for a long time . . . but it could be with a dramatically smaller number of US forces than are there today."
He said he believed that Iran was seeking to develop a military nuclear capacity but that Tehran was primarily interested in such weapons as a deterrent.
He was open to maintaining a channel of communication with Iran and Syria but such a mechanism would not necessarily involve direct negotiations.
"Long-term stability in Iraq will be influenced by Syria and Iran," he said.