Netanyahu warns against renewed talks with Iran

PM tells Ottawa news conference, Iran "could pursue or exploit talks as they've done in past to deceive and delay."

By REUTERS
Netanyahu shakes hands with Candian counterpart R 390 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Netanyahu shakes hands with Candian counterpart R 390
(photo credit: REUTERS)
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu dismissed on Friday the idea of renewed international negotiations with Iran aimed at preventing the country from building a nuclear weapon.
"It could do again what it has done before, it could pursue or exploit the talks as they've done in the past to deceive and delay so that they can continue to advance their nuclear program and get to the nuclear finish line by running up the clock, so to speak," Netanyahu told a news conference in Ottawa after talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"I think the international community should not fall into this trap," he said.
Netanyahu will hold talks in Washington on Monday with US President Barack Obama to address growing differences between the two men over what Washington fears could be an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites.
In an interview with the Atlantic magazine published on Friday, Obama said "all options are on the table" for dealing with Iran's nuclear plans and added that the final option was the "military component".
At the start of the meeting with Harper, Netanyahu affirmed that Israel reserved the right to defend itself against Iran, and that the international community should not allow what he called "Iran's relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons" to succeed.
"As for Israel, like any sovereign country, we reserve the right to defend ourselves against a country that calls and works for our destruction," he told reporters.