U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended Israel’s nuclear program on Saturday, saying the Jewish state did not seek to destroy its neighbors or support terrorism, unlike Iran.
Asked at the Manama Dialogue conference whether he thought Israel’s nuclear program posed a threat to the region, Gates replied: “No, I do not.”
The statement was greeted by laughter from a room filled with government officials from Middle Eastern countries.
Australians remain ambivalent about the United States with many distrusting its politics and values but ranking American arts, literature and sports highly, a new survey reveals.
The US Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney has released the second half of a survey of 1200 people that shows confidence towards the US has waned over the past 20 years.
Overall, 44 per cent said they had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in the US to deal “wisely” or “responsibly” with its own social and economic problems – down from 56 per cent taken in a 1986 survey.