Washington, Jan 11: President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday voiced fear that Mumbai-type attacks can be replicated by terrorists in other parts of world, including the US and said his administration will focus on putting more pressure on "our major target" al-Qaeda.
Asked about 26/11 terror strikes in an interview to ABC News, Obama said the "danger is always there" to have a Mumbai-type attack in an American city.
"When you see what happened in Mumbai, that potentially points to a new strategy, not simply suicide bombings but you have commandos taking over...," he said.
"I think you have to anticipate that having seen the mayhem that was created in Mumbai, that there are going to be potential copycats or other terrorist organisations that think this is something that they can replicate," Obama said.
At a Congressional hearing on Mumbai attack this week, top US intelligence and police officials had expressed similar fear and said that this makes all the more necessary to ensure that those responsible for such an attack are brought to justice, given that US cities are always on top of the hit list of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
"So we're going to have to be vigilant in terms of our intelligence, we're going to have to make sure that we are more effective in terms of anticipating some of these issues, and we've got to continue to put pressure on al-Qaeda, which is our major target -- that's something that I talked about extensively during the campaign," Obama said.
"That has to be one of our primary areas of focus when it comes to our international security."
Early this week, President George W Bush's homeland security adviser Ken Wainstein, while talking about the Mumbai attacks, said: ""You could envision it happening in any American city. It's chilling when you think about it."
Obama's comments on the Mumbai attacks came two days after Vice President-elect Joseph Biden visited Pakistan and impressed upon Islamabad the need to cooperate with New Delhi in the probe into the deadly strikes that killed over 180 people, including six Americans, in India's financial hub.
Iran would be biggest challenge
The US President-elect,
Barack Obama, said on Sunday that Iran with a nuclear ambition
would be the biggest challenge of his administration and that
he would move swiftly with a "new approach" soon after he
takes over next week.
"Well, I think that Iran is going to be one of
our biggest challenges," Obama told the ABC news channel in an
interview telecast today.
"As I said during the campaign, you know, we have a
situation in which not only is Iran exporting terrorism
through Hamas, through Hezbollah, but they are pursuing a
nuclear weapon that could potentially trigger a nuclear arms
race in the Middle East," Obama said.
The President-elect indicated that his administration
would adopt a new approach on Iran starting with diplomacy and
dialogue.
"We are going to have to take a new approach. And I've
outlined my belief that engagement is the place to start. That
the international community is going to be taking cues from us
in how we want to approach Iran," he said.
"I think that sending a signal that we respect the
aspirations of the Iranian people, but that we also have
certain expectations in terms of how a international actor
behaves, is...," Obama said.
"I think a new emphasis on respect and a new emphasis
on being willing to talk, but also clarity about what our
bottom lines are. And we are in preparations for that. We
anticipate that we're going to have to move swiftly in that
area," he said.
Bureau Report