Dr Robert Gates said the latest intelligence assessments showed the country had secretly developed a nuclear weapons programme for several years and has retained the capability to restart it in the future.
He told delegates at the Manama Dialogue security conference that America was committed to a peaceful resolution, but said Iran's behaviour gave him no confidence that any dialogue between the countries would be productive.
By GEOFFREY BEW
IRAN'S leadership is bent on a path of confrontation and creating instability in Iraq and Afghanistan that could have catastrophic consequences for the Middle East, the US Secretary of Defence warned yesterday.
Dr Robert Gates said the latest intelligence assessments showed the country had secretly developed a nuclear weapons programme for several years and has retained the capability to restart it in the future.
He told delegates at the Manama Dialogue security conference that America was committed to a peaceful resolution, but said Iran's behaviour gave him no confidence that any dialogue between the countries would be productive.
"We have a leadership in Iran now that is bent on confrontation with its neighbours, that is deeply engaged in subverting stability both in Iraq and Afghanistan and it has threatened the existence of other states in the region," said Dr Gates.
"Everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to ferment instability and chaos, no matter the strategic value or cost in the blood of innocents - Christians, Jews and Muslims alike.
"There can be little doubt that their destabilising foreign policies are a threat to the interests of the US, every country in the Middle East and all countries within the range of ballistic missiles Iran is developing."
Dr Gates made the comments during a plenary session about the US and the regional balance of power at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa.
He insisted America was committed to peaceful solutions, but warned that previous nations which looked to its shores for signs of vulnerability had never succeeded.
"Imperial Germany, imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union - all made this fundamental miscalculation," said Dr Gates.
"All paid the price. All are on the ash heap of history."
Dr Gates said it was no secret that US troops were due to start pulling out of Iraq this month, which would offer risks and opportunities for the region.
He accepted that many Arab states may disagree with US policy in the Middle East, but said it was essential that all countries helped to secure a peaceful Iraq.
"There may be some who, because of past resentments and disagreements, might be cheering for failure," he said.
"I would respectfully suggest that these sentiments are dangerously short-sighted and self destructive. The first and secondary effects of failure in Iraq will be felt in all the capitals and communities of the Middle East well before they are felt in the US.
"But just as the nations of the region have the most to lose from chaos in Iraq, they also have the most to gain for a secure, stable and prosperous Iraq."
Dr Gates also denied Israel's nuclear capabilities posed any threat to the region or that this position represented double-standards.
He said that the Jewish state had not shipped weapons into Iraq to kill innocent civilians, threatened to destroy its neighbours or tried to destabilise the Lebanese government.
More than 20 government delegations, including defence ministers, national security advisers and foreign ministers are taking part in the fourth annual conference.
They include officials from Australia, France, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China, the UAE and Hong Kong.
International Institute for Strategic Studies director-general Dr John Chipman officially opened the summit yesterday.
It will conclude today with sessions discussing the situation in Iraq and a regional framework for Gulf security, before Bahrain's Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa hosts a closing lunch for delegation leaders.
