Hillary Clinton said US could 'obliterate Iran' if she was President

In the interview the losing White House candidate said she would launch an attack on the Middle Eastern state if they were to attack Israel.

In 2008, when serving in the US Senate, Mrs Clinton issued the stark warning to the Iranian government.

Speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America, she said: “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel).

“In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.

“That’s a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic.”

The comments were sparked after a presidential debate, only a week earlier to the interview, when she promised “massive retaliation” against any Iranian attack on Israel, while battling against fellow Democrat Barack Obama for the party’s presidential nomination.

Mr Obama, who went on to win the nomination and the subsequent election, rejected Mrs Clinton’s rhetoric.

During a separate interview at the time, he said: “One of the things that we’ve seen over the last several years is a bunch of talk using words like ‘obliterate’, It doesn’t actually produce good results.”

In her second attempt to become president, Mrs Clinton was defeated by Mr Trump who will become the 45th president of the United States.

The surprise victory – which defied polls – came after the Republican candidate managed to secure major battlegrounds Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.

In his winning speech he told voters that it is “time for America to bind the wounds of division”.

He added: “It is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. It is so important to me.”

The reemergence of the interview comes after Russian military officials claiming that Mr Trump’s shock victory prevented World War Three from erupting.

The senior Moscow diplomat, who advises Vladimir Putin, said a Clinton presidency would have plunged the world into a diplomatic crisis.

Speaking after the stunning upset, President Putin’s right-hand man said Americans had faced two choices on the ballot paper: “World War Three or multilateral peace.”

Presidential advisor Sergei Glazykev added: “Clinton was a symbol of war, and Trump has a chance to change this course.”

Officials in Moscow were said to favour a Republican victory and after the result was announced on Wednesday morning, President Putin sent a telegram to the president-elect expressing “hope toward joint work to lift Russian-US relations from the site of crisis, as well as to address the pressing issue of the international agenda and search for effective responses to global security challenges”.

Mr Trump’s call for the US to reduce its funding for an “obsolete” Nato could also be a major boost for Moscow, allowing Russia to increate its intimidation of eastern European states.

A stronger Russia threatens to destabilise Europe, providing the catalyst for fresh conflict which has the potential – if still remote – to escalate into a third world war.

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http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/731551/us-election-president-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-world-war-iran-russia-putin