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Iranian nuclear challenge must be tackled in 2013: Israel
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the foreign media in Jerusalem December 10, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Amir Cohen
JERUSALEM |
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iran is getting ever closer to being able to build a nuclear bomb and the problem will have to be confronted in 2013, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
Israeli officials would like the United States to take the lead in a military assault on Iran's nuclear sites, but say in private they would go it alone if necessary, describing a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat to the Jewish state.
Speaking to foreign journalists, Netanyahu said Israel was sticking to the red line he laid down in September, when he told the United Nations Iran should not have enough enriched uranium to make even a single warhead.
"I made clear that once Iran crosses that enrichment threshold, the chances of us effectively stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program would be reduced dramatically," he said.
"Iran is two and a half months closer to crossing this line and there is no doubt that this will be a major challenge that will have to be addressed next year."
Iran denies accusations by Israel, the United States and many Western governments that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, saying its ambitious nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes.
Israeli experts have said Iran could have enriched enough uranium to produce just one bomb by the spring or summer of 2013. In an effort to deter Tehran, Western powers have imposed increasingly tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
"The sanctions on Iran are hurting the Iranian economy. There is no question about that. But we have not seen any evidence that sanctions have stalled Iran's nuclear weapons program," Netanyahu said.
"Israel is more capable of addressing this challenge than it was when I took office four years ago," said Netanyahu, who looks on course to win re-election in a January 22 national ballot.
Israel has one of the largest air forces in the world and is believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.
Iran's nuclear facilities are well protected and dotted around the vast country, posing a massive challenge to the Israeli military which does not have the reach of the United States or as powerful conventional munitions.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by Andrew Roche)
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From what, anybody’s guess, but they’re getting closer!
“Iran denies accusations by Israel, the United States and many Western governments that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, saying its ambitious nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes.”
For those who believe there is no reason for either the State of Israel or the United States to fear the mindset of those who control Iran one need only listen to what those who reflect the thinking of Islam state in their own words.
“If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”
– Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah (or “Party of God”), Daily Star, 23 October 2002
“I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.”
– Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s current communications director
“The Shariah is the divine law sent by Allah… It is justice for mankind… It is a noble thing to invite someone to a superior way of life.”
– Imam Anjem Choudary
“Jerusalem belongs to us, and the whole world belongs to us!”
– Shaykh Safwat Hegazy, Egyptian member of the Muslim Brotherhood in a recent video threatened all non-Muslims
“We love death more than you love life.”
– Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 and wounding of 30 fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, TX
“Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan [America] is absolute… I conclude my speech with the slogan that will continue to reverberate on all occasions so that nobody will think that we have weakened. Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America”
– Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah (or “Party of God”),BBC Monitoring: Al-Manar, 27 September 2002
“It is our pride that the Great Satan (U.S.) and the head of despotism, corruption and arrogance in modern times considers us as an enemy that should be listed in the terrorism list…I say to every member of Hezbollah (should) be happy and proud that your party has been placed on the list of terrorist organizations as the U.S. view it”
– Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah (or “Party of God”), United Press International, 4 November 2001
“Martyrdom operations – suicide bombings – should be exported outside Palestine. I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings worldwide. Don’t be shy about it.”
– Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah (or “Party of God”), Washington Times 6 December 2002
“Every Muslim should be a terrorist.”
– Dr. Zakir Naik, Islamic speaker
“Oh Allah, strike the apostate rulers,
Oh Allah, kill them one after the other, sparing none.”
– Abu Musab al Zarqawi, 7 January 2004
“True Islam permits neither elections nor democracy.”
– Sufi Mohammed, Muslim Cleric
“If the West wants to have peace, then they have to accept Islamic rule.”
– Abu Bakar Bashir, Muslim Cleric from Indonesia
“Muslims must educate their children to Jihad and to hatred of the Jews, the Christians, and the infidels.”
–Saudi preacher Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid
“What makes Allah happy? Allah is happy when non-Muslims get killed.”
– Abu Hamza al-Masn, former leader of Supporters of Shariah
“Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is ‘Death to America’!”
– Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Hezbollah
“Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the Great Satan [America] is absolute… Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, Death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan: Death to America.”
– Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Hezbollah
“The accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible.”
– Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian President
“Israel must be wiped off the map.”
– Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian President, 2005
These non-existent WMD’s are exactly the same as Iraq’s WMD’s.
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