Washington: Iran is closer to developing
a nuclear bomb on Sunday than it was earlier, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday and asserted that only
an American military action can stop Tehran from that.
"Iran is closer to developing nuclear weapons today
than it was a week ago, or a month ago or a year ago. It`s
just moving on with its efforts," Netanyahu told the Fox News
in an interview on Sunday.
I think there is a great danger to the world, not only
to my country but to the United States, to the Middle East, to
peace, to all of humanity, from the prospect that such a
regime that brutalises its own people, that sponsors terrorism
more than any other regime in the world -- that this regime
acquires atomic bombs is very, very dangerous, he said.
"There`s only been one time that Iran actually
stopped the programme, and that was when it feared US military
action.
So when the (US) President says that he`s determined
to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and that all
options are on the table, I think that`s the right statement
of policy," Netanyahu said in response to a question.
"You ask what our policy is. Our policy is very
simple. The Jewish state was set up to defend Jewish lives,
and we always reserve the right to defend ourselves," he said.
"You can`t rely on the fact that they`ll obey the
calculations of cost and benefit that have governed all
nuclear power since the rise of the nuclear age.
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we`ve had effective
nuclear peace for more than half a century because everybody
understood the rules," Netanyahu added.
"I don`t think you can rely on Iran. I don`t think
you can rely on other radicals like the Taliban. They
dispatched al Qaeda to bomb New York and Washington.
What were they thinking? Were they that stupid? They
weren`t stupid. There is irrationality there, and there is
madness in this method," he said.
"We should not allow irrational regimes like Iran to
have nuclear weapons. It`s the ultimate terrorist threat
today," Netanyahu said.
PTI
