Clinton fears Iran becoming "military dictatorship"

Feb 15, 2010, 9:30 GMT

Doha - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday said she feared Iran is becoming a 'military dictatorship' as the country's Revolutionary Guard takes on more power.

Speaking to students in Doha, Qatar, Clinton said the United States would use diplomatic pressure to put pressure on the Revolutionary Guard, which she said 'is supplanting the government of Iran.'

'Iran is moving toward military dictatorship,' superseding the power of the president, the supreme leader, and the parliament, Clinton warned in a live interview with Qatari satellite news channel al-Jazeera before an audience of students at Carnegie-Melon University's Doha campus.

She said the United States would continue to target enterprises controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, which plays a large role in Iran's energy, missile-production, construction and telecommunications industries.

Last week, the United States froze the assets of a Revolutionary Guard general and subsidiaries of a construction company it had previously taken action against because of its alleged role in producing weapons of mass destruction.

Clinton's Monday remarks came after US National Security Advisor James Jones told Fox News that tighter sanctions, amid unrest in Iran, 'could trigger regime change' in Iran.

'We are about to add to (the Iranian) regime's difficulties by engineering, participating in very tough sanctions,' Jones said Sunday night.

The added measures could come before the end of February, he said.

Jones said support for sanctions in the UN was already growing, and that he was hopeful to gain Chinese support.

'We are on a clear path for what needs to happen next,' he said. 'We need to work on China a little bit more. China wants to be seen as a responsible global influence, and on this issue they cannot be non-supportive.'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last week that Iran is capably of enriching uranium to a level that Western experts believe would allow development of a nuclear weapon.

Washington, along with Germany and Security Council veto powers Britain, France, Russia and China have offered to trade Iran's low- enriched uranium for nuclear fuel that the country could use for peaceful purposes.

The new push for UN sanctions is in response to Iran's failure to accept that deal, Jones said.