WASHINGTON, March 16: The US national security strategy report released on Thursday highlights some of the dangers and threats the United States and the international community face.

Here are a few key examples:

We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran. For almost 20 years, the Iranian regime hid many of its key nuclear efforts from the international community. Yet the regime continues to claim that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons.

As important as are these nuclear issues, the United States has broader concerns regarding Iran. The Iranian regime sponsors terrorism; threatens Israel; seeks to thwart Middle East peace; disrupts democracy in Iraq; and denies the aspirations of its people for freedom.

The DPRK (North Korea) continues to destabilize its region and defy the international community, now boasting a small nuclear arsenal and an illicit nuclear program, in violation of its international obligations.

Winning the ‘War on Terror’ requires winning the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq ... The terrorists today see Iraq as the central front of their fight against the United States.

Terrorists, including those associated with the Al-Qaeda network, continue to pursue WMD (weapons of mass destruction) ... Some states, such as Syria and Iran, continue to harbour terrorists at home and sponsor terrorist activity abroad.

Many countries are too dependent upon foreign oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.

In Darfur, Sudan, the people of an impoverished region are the victims of genocide arising from a civil war that pits a murderous militia, backed by the Sudanese government, against a collection of rebel groups.

In Venezuela, a demagogue awash in oil money is undermining democracy and seeking to destabilize the region.

The document also lists environmental and biological threats, including:

Public health challenges like pandemics (HIV/AIDS, avian influenza) that recognise no borders; and

Environmental destruction, whether caused by human behaviour or cataclysmic mega-disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or tsunamis.—AFP