Clinton: If US extends defense umbrella over ME, Iran will not be safer

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Thailand on Wednesday, on a leg of her second trip to Asia this year. "The United States is back," she declared upon arrival in the Thai capital Tuesday. In an appearance Wednesday morning on a Thai TV talk show she said, "President Obama and I are giving great importance to this region," suggesting that the administration of former President George W. Bush neglected US interests in Asia. She also said the US has a plan to prevent Iranian domination in the Middle East if it gets the nuclear bomb. "We want Iran to calculate what I think is a fair assessment: that if the United States extends a defense umbrella over the region, if we do even more to develop the military capacity of those [allies] in the Gulf, it is unlikely that Iran will be any stronger or safer."