Biden Says Pakistan Is Biggest Concern

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says the situation in Pakistan is his biggest foreign policy concern.

Speaking in an interview with CNN "Larry King Live," Biden said the situation in Pakistan worries him more than the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq and over the Iranian nuclear standoff.

Biden described Pakistan as a large country with nuclear weapons that can be deployed and with a "significant minority" of its population that has been radicalized. Biden added that Pakistan is not "a completely functional democracy."

In the intervew, Biden also said that Iran's nuclear program was a "real concern" because it could pressure neighboring countries in the Middle East to possibly pursue nuclear arms.

Biden said he was concerned that if Iran was to gain even a small nuclear arms capability, it could pressure Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey to seek to acquire nuclear arms, which he said would be very destabilizing. Iran denies any effort to develop a nuclear weapon.

compiled from agency reports