Gates: Iran nuclear arms worst threat to security

Iran's nuclear ambitions are the greatest current threat to global security, according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. 

"Iran is the one that concerns me the most because there don't seem to be good options (or a scenario) where one can have any optimism that good options will be found," Gates told the Economic Club of Chicago.

The threat rests not only in Iran's apparent determination to seek a nuclear weapon, but in the "inability of the international community to affect their determination to do that," Gates said.

"All of the outcomes are negative," he said. "If they achieve one, the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East is very, very real.

"If something is done to prevent them from getting one, the consequences of that are completely unpredictable and frankly, very bad."

Gates says he has struggled to convince other nations, particularly Russia, that the Iranian situation does not simply threaten the United States.

"Iran's going to have the capability to deliver nuclear weapons to the people in their region a lot sooner than they're going to have the capability to deliver them to us," he added.

It was reported overnight Friday that Gates is scheduled to visit Israel soon to meet with top officials on the Iranian nuclear program. The American defense secretary said during past meetings with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, that he was opposed to an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

On Thursday Israeli missile class warships sailed through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea. The move was apparently done in preparation for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

"Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran. These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats,” an official in Jerusalem said.