Wednesday, February 17, 2010

PM Netanyahu: World waking up to Iranian nuclear threat, but ought to stay awake and Act

(Haaretz, Ynet).The 'gap in understanding' between Israel and the world over Iran is narrowing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Disputed elections in Iran and the uncovering of a secret uranium enrichment plant near the Iranian city of Qom had alerted the world to the growing Iranian threat, Netanyahu said.

"Now the international community has an obligation to intervene to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," the prime minister told a conference of Jewish leaders from South America.

The world must now act to impose heavy restrictions on Iran, Netanyahu said.

"Watered down sanctions, modest sanctions, will not do the job," he said adding that new measures must aim to curtail Iran's oil exports and energy supply. (Although an oil producer, Iran has limited refining capacity and imports gasoline).

Netanyahu said that the people in both Israel and Iran had their say in the elections and asked for peace and liberty.

"The people in Israel expressed their desire for stable, defensible peace. The people in Iran expressed their desire to throw off the shackles of the tyrannical and brutal regime and to achieve liberty. This truth was revealed to the world alongside the revelation of the secret facility in Qom."