NICOSIA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tour of Iranian centrifuges Wednesday
is an indication that the world’s sanctions against Iran are not working, Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday.
Netanyahu’s comments came
during a press conference in Nicosia with Cypriot President Demetris
Christofias.
“If anybody needed a reminder that the sanctions have not
stopped the nuclear program, it was the guided tour by Iran’s president in the
centrifuge hall yesterday,” he said. “I hope they work, but so far they have
not.”
Netanyahu characterized Iran as a regime that “breaks all the
rules” and was formed through the taking of the US Embassy in Tehran. Iran has
continued to show no respect for international rules, he added, with the most
recent example being the attack on foreign diplomats and their
wives.
“They send children into mine fields, they have suicide bombers,
they send tens of thousands of rockets into our cities and towns,” Netanyahu
said. “Such a regime should obviously not have an atomic bomb, and I believe
that the international community is becoming aware by the day of what it means
for Iran [to have nuclear potential],” he said.
Asked whether the US
should fear an Israeli attack on Iran, Netanyahu said that Israel, the US and
the rest of the world should be concerned about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear
weapons.
