Netanyahu draws red line on Iran, asks world to do same
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows an illustration as he describes his concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions during his address to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Sept. 27, 2012. / AP Photo
Updated at 4:02 p.m. ET
(CBS/AP) UNITED NATIONS - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Thursday that Iran will have enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb by next summer and urged the world to draw a clear "red line" to stop it in its tracks.
Saying it was getting "late, very late" to stop Iran, Netanyahu flashed a diagram showing the progress Iran has made toward creating a bomb.
"At this late hour, there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs, and that is by placing a clear red line on Iran's nuclear weapons program," Netanyahu said.
He said Iran had already completed the first stage of uranium enrichment, and then he drew his own red line on the diagram to highlight the point of no return — the completion of the second stage and 90 percent enrichment.
"Iran is 70 percent of the way there and ... well into the second stage. By next summer, at current enrichment rates, they will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage," Netanyahu said. "From there it is only a few more weeks before they have enriched enough for a bomb."
Netanyahu has repeatedly argued that time is running out to stop the Islamic Republic from becoming a nuclear power and the threat of force must be seriously considered.
"I believe that faced with a clear red line, Iran will back down — and it will give more time for sanctions and diplomacy," the Israeli prime minister said. "Red lines don't lead to war, red lines prevent war ... nothing could imperil the world more than a nuclear-armed Iran."
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Netanyahu's speech marks perhaps his final plea before Israel takes matters into its own hands. Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks suggesting that if Iran's uranium enrichment program continues it may soon stage a unilateral military strike, flouting even American wishes.
The Obama administration has urgently sought to hold off Israeli military action, which would likely result in the U.S. being pulled into a conflict and cause region-wide mayhem on the eve of American elections.
Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing Iranian denials of the Holocaust, its calls for Israel's destruction, its development of missiles capable of striking the Jewish state and its support for hostile Arab militant groups.
"Given this record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons, just imagine Iranian aggression with nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes but Israel, the U.S. and other Western allies reject the claim. Four rounds of U.N. sanctions have already been placed on Iran.
A U.N. report last month only reinforced Israeli fears, finding that Iran has moved more of its uranium enrichment activities into fortified bunkers deep underground where there are impervious to air attack. Enrichment is a key activity in building a bomb, though it has other uses as well, such as producing medical isotopes.
While Israel is convinced that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, American officials believe Iran has not yet made a final decision to take the plunge, even as it develops much of the infrastructure needed to do so.
President Obama has repeatedly said he will not allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons and has said the U.S. would be prepared to use force as a last resort. But in an interview Sunday with CBS' "60 Minutes" he also vowed to "block out any noise that's out there" on the issue, in an apparent swipe at Netanyahu.
(Below, watch Part 1 of Mr. Obama's interview with Steve Kroft)
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Netanyahu claims international diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions have failed, but a new report from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, leaked Thursday, concludes that sanctions are hitting Iran hard. According to the report, details of which appeared in the Haaretz newspaper, Iran's oil exports declined by over 50 percent in the past year and sanctions on Iran's central bank have made it difficult for the regime to access its foreign currency.
An Israeli official confirmed the new report but refused to elaborate on it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal government documents.
A few hours before Netanyahu flew to the U.S., Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known for past fiery denunciations of the United States and Israel, spoke at length about his vision for a "new world order" during his speech at the U.N. His speech on Wednesday happened to fall on Yom Kippur, the most sacred day on the Jewish calendar, devoted to fasting, prayer and introspection.
In an interview broadcast on "CBS This Morning" Wednesday, Ahmadinejad downplayed one of his most infamous references to Israel - saying "wiped off" the map - and insisted that "we have never threatened them."(Watch at left)
"We say that occupation should be done away with," said Ahmadinejad. "Warlike behavior should be done away with. Terrorism should be done away with. The killing of women and children should be done away with. Has the Zionist regime done anything other than this during the last 65 years? No, they haven't."
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Very few people are buying Israeli hasbarah anymore. The irony here is that it is hard to not agree with much of what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is saying since much of it if not all is true.
The Israelis are stealing more land, and illegally transferring its population into occupied territory right now. This is beyond dispute, Israel has been an international problem because of its ethnic cleansing and land theft and TIME'S UP.
The real answer is that Israel was created in 1948 and not a minute before. Israel is beholden to those who created it, the United Nations in UNSCR 181. Now read it, understand the mandate, get yourselves BACK to your side of the line, and forget about East Jerusalem, that is the shared half that belongs to the Palestinians as capital to their nascent state.
Accept the Arab Peace Initiative, and stop trying to start WWIII over a mistranslation that has been debunked thousands upon thousands of times since 2005.
You cannot have the last 22% of the mandate, you must stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, you must stop stealing land and illegally transferring your civilian population onto land occupied by force that Israel does not and never will own.
Do so and the world will be a much safer place. Refuse to do so and watch the acceleration away from you of any support from anyone on the planet - true international pariah status - unlike Iran who has far more support than does Israel because sadly for you, much of what Ahmadinejad says is true.
Plus you did a lot of this to yourselves with your constant self-serving whining even as you were slaughtering. Remember the Second Lebanon War, that Israel lost even while Israel laid waste to Beirut and attacked and killed many hundreds of civilians over a border pretext.
Then remember Cast Lead, where Israel purposely destroyed civilian infrastructure, attacked the United Nations with White Phosphorous, killed many hundreds of civilians yet more women and children, used civilians as human shields and continue to this day the illegal occupation of Gaza.
Don't even bother to trot out the lie that Israel pulled out of Gaza. The world is well aware that this is nothing but a lie. It's no wonder Israel has so little support.
Stop trying to change the subject to Iran. Israel is its own largest existential threat. Iran is just tweaking you and you guys fall for it every time just like the US 'baggers...
The hatred of the radical Muslim world that surrounds Israel is on display on a daily basis for all to see but you fools prefer to blame Israel and her supporters in the Republican Party in the U.S. for the unrest.
The violence unleashed on a regular basis by radical Islamists who hate both Israel and the U.S. is growing on a daily basis.
But you fools and idiots argue, and want the world to believe, that a nuclear Iran is inevitable and as such would pose no threat to stability in the Middle East.
Israel is right to resist what all intelligent people agree would be a frightening doomsday scenario if Iran completes its plan to arm itself with nuclear tipped missiles aimed at Israel.
You are despicable to me and you deserve everything coming your way if the Middle East goes up in flames as it very well may in the near future, swallowing up the whole world in a tragic conflagration.
I have no problem with Jews in the least, but I am a firm anti-Zionist. We wouldn't pay them a lick of attention if they hadn't hijacked a Biblical name.
I didn't know you believed in war and death. I personally believe is peace and friendship. I don't want to see more countries fighting. I wish you would stop building your nuclear
mindset.
We lost over 4000 troops (along with hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians) in the manufactured war in Iraq.
Our troops come home severly injured, physically or phychologically and have to FIGHT again for the medical care they damn well earned.
Sorry, I don't care what anyone wants, Americans are just not used to never ending wars.
We help these countries out financially while our own economy is going down the toilet.
Americans are war weary.
There isn't anything to "win", there never was anything to "win" and with all these countries fighting since the beginning of time, unless someone takes a real concerted effort to lead, there will never be anything to win.
M.A.D - mutually assured destruction - is a great way to change a real war into a cold war.
Further we can't tell another nation, particularly one we have labeled a member of the Axis-of-Evil and invaded their neighbor how to protect their citizens. If Israel has a nuke then Iran should have one. After all, Iran did not pass nuclear technology to Apartheid South Africa, Israel did! I suggest you Google "Vela Incident". Israel won't even let in the IAEA inspectors. It's estimated that they have well over 100 nukes and tells the UN and Red Cross to Go To Hell. Israel is a criminal regime, not in the least interested in peace.
As to the threatened "unilateral" attack by Israel on Iran and its nuclear facilities. Any attack is an impossibility due to several insurmountable conditions. First they would have to get U.S. permission to do a fly-over of Iraq or permission from Jordan, and that won't happen, their jets would be shot down. Secondly, Israel doesn't have the equipment to mount an attack on Iran's Nuclear Sites ... IT WOULD BE A ONE-WAY TRIP ... A SUICIDE MISSION and they would have to dodge Soviet Ground-to-Air Missiles in the bargain.
Next they would have to be in a position to contend with the astronomical increase in the price of oil and the economic disaster that would befall every nation on the planet as a result of their actions.
Do you think China or Russia or Pakistan or India or even America would allow that to happen to the world's delicate economies. They would be a nation of pariahs treated as lepers by the rest of the world and Israel, as a nation, could not survive if they were not destroyed "out-of-hand".
They can talk all they want but everyone knows that the world will not allow Israel to drag it into WWIII.
AND WE STILL REMEMBER THE U.S.S. LIBERTY AND JONATHAN POLLARD ...
Who is Bibi's illustrator?