Iran is the biggest threat to US, says military official

Iran is the biggest threat to the United States in the Middle East, surpassing al Qaeda, which is down but not out, a senior US military official said on Friday.

"The biggest threat to the United States and to our interests and to our friends, I might add, has come into focus and it's Iran," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Speaking at a forum in Washington, the official said he did not believe Iran wanted to provoke a conflict, however, and added he did not know if the Islamic state had decided to build a nuclear weapon.

Next week, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, is expected to release a report that includes evidence of Iranian nuclear research which makes little sense if not weapons related, Western diplomats said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna)