Mullen Urges Turkey to Help on Iran

The US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, urged Turkey on Saturday to help ensure Iran doesn't gain the capacity to make atomic weapons, reports say

"The mutual goal of Iran not achieving a nuclear-weapons capability, that we completely agree on, we just need to reinforce," said Mullen. Both countries need to "do all we can to make sure that doesn't happen."

Turkey having one of the world's largest standing military and a critical player in the Middle East and Central Asia and a member of NATO is needed by the US.

Urging Turkey to extend the period of its commands in Afghanistan, Adm. Mullen praised Turkey's role in charge of international troops in the region around Kabul and in providing police training and staffing for reconstruction teams.

"We would like to see Turkey sustain all of those efforts because they've been so important in Afghanistan and also because of the critical time in which we find ourselves in Afghanistan right now," he said.

During his trip to Turkey, Mullen met with top Turkey officials including head of the Turkish armed forces and the Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul.

Today Mullen has scheduled to meet with the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

At the same time, while describing Iran not only a threat to the US, but also to the region, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton remarked that Iran's nuclear programmes and its support to insurgent groups in the region have seriously raised Washington's concerns.