(ap).Benjamin Netanyahu, who hopes to become Israel's next prime minister, warned Thursday that "a terribly dangerous threshold will be crossed" if Iran obtains nuclear weapons, and urged world leaders to make sure it does not happen.
After a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the hardline front-runner in next year's Israeli elections laid out his plans for Mideast peace and called Iran the "greatest historical challenge" the world faces.
"We have never had a situation in the history of the world in which a radical regime with a retrograde ideology and apparently known ambitions on the use of force will get access to the weapons of mass death," Netanyahu told reporters, referring to the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb.
The whirlwind visit to Paris came as a French parliamentary report raised new warning signs about Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon, and amid revelations about a budding European Union peace initiative for the Middle East.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier, confirming some details of a report Thursday in the Le Figaro daily newspaper, said EU foreign ministers had discussed earlier this month a "working document" to ease tensions between the Palestinians and Israel.
The document, which had not been previously made public, mentions the prospect of making an international force "available" for Palestinian areas if both sides agree, and setting up "an international mechanism" that could give financial help to Palestinian refugees, he said.
The document raises the possibility that Jerusalem could be "the capital of two states" side by side — Israel and a future Palestinian state, Chevallier said. He said the proposal is still in the works.
Netanyahu said he made his position on those issues clear to Sarkozy.
"We want a united Jerusalem under Israel, with access to the religious sites, to all the three great faiths," he said. "Our position on refugees is also unchanged: We'll seek a solution to the problem of refugees but not in Israel — we will not entertain refugees, Palestinian refugees, inside Israel."
"The coming year or two — this is the timetable we are talking about — will be a pivot of history," Netanyahu said. "If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, then a terribly dangerous threshold will be crossed."
Netanyahu also met with French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, laying out what Netanyahu called a "new approach" that would put more attention on Palestinian economic development.
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