PM: West not backing rhetoric on Iran with deeds

Netanyahu tells Foreign Ministry officials certain countries are not matching tough talk on Iran with willingness to apply sanctions.

By HERB KEINON
prime minister binyamin netanyahu informing_311 (photo credit: GPO/Moshe Milner)
prime minister binyamin netanyahu informing_311
(photo credit: GPO/Moshe Milner)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is stepping up criticism of Western powers for ineffective sanctions against Iran, telling a Foreign Ministry gathering certain unnamed countries are not matching their tough rhetoric on Iran with a willingness to apply crippling sanctions.
The Jerusalem Post learned that Netanyahu, in a closed address Monday to Israel’s ambassadors and head of missions abroad meeting in the Foreign Ministry, said the expressed desire by certain countries, led by the US, to strengthen sanctions on Iran was “welcome and important.”
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But the test of stiffening the sanctions is to take action against both Iran’s petrochemical industry and central bank, he said.
“There is no possibility of talking about crippling sanctions without these steps being taken immediately and with force,” he said.
Netanyahu said that while he didn’t know whether such “crippling” sanctions would stop Iran’s nuclear program, he was certain they would make things difficult enough for the Iranian government that it would have to reconsider its actions.
But if the sanctions were not imposed, he said, this would be interpreted by the Iranians as a sign the West did not truly have the will or intent to stop them.
Netanyahu’s National Security Council head, Yaakov Amidror, addressed the same gathering Monday, and said Israel’s “number one mission” was to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms.
If Iran gets the bomb, he said, it would be a different Middle East and a different world.