by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz calls on world powers to place a red line before Iran • Says action should be taken within "a few weeks, a month" if Iran does not halt uranium enrichment.
Strategic Affairs,
Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz says
Iran is buying time to build a nuclear weapon.
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Photo credit: Lior Mizrahi |
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Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and
International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz on Sunday called on
world powers to set a deadline for military action against Iran within
weeks, to persuade it to halt its nuclear enrichment program, after
talks in Kazakhstan over the weekend ended without progress.
World powers and Iran failed again to end a
deadlock in the decade-long dispute over Iran's nuclear program during
the talks in Almaty, prolonging a standoff that could yet spiral into a
military conflict.
"Sanctions are not enough and the talks are
not enough," Steinitz told Army Radio. "The time has come to place
before the Iranians a military threat or a form of red line, an
unequivocal red line by the entire world, by the United States and the
West ... in order to get results."
Steinitz said action should be taken within "a
few weeks, a month" if Iran did not stop enriching uranium, although he
did not elaborate.
Netanyahu himself has spoken of a mid-2013
"red line" for denying Iran the fuel needed for a first bomb, although
several Israeli officials have privately acknowledged that this has been
deferred, maybe indefinitely.
The five permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council — the U.S. Russia, Britain, France and China — and
Germany are trying to persuade Iran to abandon its higher-grade uranium
enrichment, as a first step to a broader deal.
Refined uranium can be used to power atomic
reactors, Iran's stated aim, or provide material for weapons if
processed further. Iran says its nuclear work is intended for peaceful
purposes.
Steinitz said in the interview that Iran was using talks to play for time while continuing to strive for a nuclear weapon.
"We warned beforehand that the way in which
these talks are being conducted is a ploy to gain time. The Iranians are
talking and laughing their way to a bomb while enriching uranium,"
Steinitz said. "We have a very clear stance on the matter and the world
is beginning to understand."
Steinitz cited North Korea's threat to use
nuclear weapons against South Korea and the U.S. as an example of what
Israel fears could happen if Iran managed to produce a nuclear weapon.
"I think that what is currently happening in
Korea serves to demonstrate to us all ... how urgent it is to stop
Iran's nuclear [activity]," Steinitz said.
"North Korea was somehow allowed by the international
community to gain nuclear weapons and it is threatening to use them
against South Korea, Japan and even the United States. Imagine what
could happen within two or three years not only to Israel but to Europe,
the United States and the whole world if the fanatical and extreme
regime in Tehran attains nuclear weapons."
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=8437
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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