WASHINGTON, Sept 16: The gap between Israel and the United States on
Iran widened on Sunday as Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Tehran was 90
per cent toward a nuclear weapon and insisted on a `red line` from
Washington.
The Israeli leader, speaking on two US political talk
shows, pressed the need for a categorical bar on Iran, saying such a
safeguard had averted nuclear calamity with Russia during the Cold War
and could do so again.
The United States says all options against
Iran, including military action, remain on the table, though top
officials have rejected the need for so-called `red lines,` implying
that they amount to political grandstanding.
To CNN and in a
second interview with NBC`s `Meet the Press` both aired Sunday Netanyahu
maintained that telling Iran there is a definite line it must step back
from would serve as a pre-emptive and effective deterrent.
`If
they know there`s a point, a stage in their enrichment or other nuclear
activities that they cannot cross because they`ll face consequences, I
think they will actually not cross it,` he told CNN`s `State of the
Union,` programme.
`It`s important to put a red line before them and that`s something we should discuss with the United States.
The
Israeli prime minister said Iran was moving rapidly to complete
enrichment of the uranium needed to produce a nuclear bomb. `In six
months or so they`ll be 90 per cent of the way there,` he said.
But
his call for a change of tack andstiffer warnings from Washington was
rejected by Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations.
Although
Rice maintained there was `no daylight` between US and Israeli policy,
her comments on the timescale of Tehran`s nuclear ambitions jarred with
Netanyahu`s judgment, and contradicted her claim of seamless unity.
`We
think that there`s still considerable time for this pressure to work,`
Rice said, refusing to acknowledge the red lines argument and insisting
that sanctions were working.
`Their economy is beginning to
buckle. Their oil production is down 40 per cent. Their currency has
plummeted 40 per cent in the last year.
But she added: `This is
not an infinite window, and we`ve made very clear that the president`s
bottom line is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.
The United
States maintains that it will not allow Iran to develop an atomic bomb,
but it favours and has pursued a policy of tough sanctions and
diplomatic arm twisting, rejecting the need for other measures.
Israel
has consistently said a nucleararmed Iran would pose an existential
threat to the Jewish state and has wielded the threat of military
action.
Major western powers agree with Israel that Tehran is
using its civilian nuclear programme as a cover for building atomic
weapons capability, a charge the Iranians have repeatedly denied.With
relations between Netanyahu and President Barack Obamaalready viewed as
frosty, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday highlighted the
policy split further when he rejected Israel`s demand for red lines.
`The
fact is, look, presidents of the United States, prime ministers of
Israel or any other country leaders of these countries don`t have, you
know, a bunch of little red lines that determine their decisions,`
Panetta said.
`What they have are facts that are presented to
them about what a country is up to, and then they weigh what kind of
action is needed to be taken in order to deal with that situation,` he
told Foreign Policy magazine.
`I mean, that`s the real world. Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.
The
White House was last week forced to deny a report that Obama had
refused to meet Netanyahu in New York later this month, and said the two
spoke by telephone on Tuesday and were united in their stance toward
Tehran.
With Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney accusing
Obama of being a poor friend to Israel, Netanyahu has denied that he is
guilty of political meddling ahead of US elections on November 6.
Rice
said in a separate interview with `Fox News Sunday` that US-Israeli
relations were `stronger than ever,` and reiterated that the only reason
Netanyahu and Obama would not meet at the upcoming UN General Assembly
in New York was because their schedules did not match.-AFP
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