Iran may regard the threat of a US nuclear attack as "much more likely" in light of Hillary Clinton's warning during the US presidential campaign that Washington can obliterate Tehran, a former US defense secretary said Thursday.

James Schlesinger, who led the US Defense Department from 1973 to 1975, made the remark at a Pentagon news conference, after presenting a blue-ribbon panel report finding that US nuclear deterrence has slipped due to neglect in past years at high levels of the Pentagon.

Schlesinger, who served under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, said North Korea probably has come to believe it is "reasonably safe from a nuclear response" because of the US response to its development of nuclear weapons.

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But asked whether Iran feared a US nuclear attack, Schlesinger said: "I think they would regard that as a much more likely development.

"As you may recall in the recent democratic primaries, Mrs Clinton observed, 'We can obliterate you','" he said,

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