Israel PM Says Sanctions Can Affect Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday said Iran’s nuclear program is not as advanced as officials in Tehran have claimed and that sanctions are still a valid tool to resolve the standoff (see GSN, Feb. 6).

“I think there is a way to stop the Iranians from moving forward on their nuclear program without violent actions,” Olmert told a gathering of U.S. Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, according to Reuters.

“They are not as close to the threshold as they pretend to be, and therefore there is still time to fight in a responsible, comprehensive and powerful manner,” he said.

The steps taken by the international community, including U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran in December, are “more effective than some think they are,” he said.

However, “They are not enough, it’s not sufficient, there must be more,” Olmert said (Reuters/New York Times, Feb. 6).

Israel is in the midst of a campaign to muster international political and economic pressures against a country that has become increasingly troubling to Israeli leaders, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Israel’s war with Iran-supported Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon last summer and increasingly strident anti-Israeli rhetoric from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have heightened concerns.

Israeli leaders are concerned that time is running out for powerful action from U.S. President George W. Bush, the Times reported.  Since last summer, Olmert has raised concerns about Iran with leaders of a number of European nations as well as China, Egypt and Jordan.  He has twice met with Bush.

A senior Israeli defense official suggested that a nuclear-armed Iran could consolidate opposition to Israel in the region.

“The Iranians could create a belief that they can beat us, and under their umbrella create and axis that will destabilize the Middle East,” Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad said.

In Qatar last week, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said that Israel’s problem was not with Iran in general but Ahmadinejad in particular.  He added that Israel did not “intend to use military action.”

Uri Lubrani, a former Israeli ambassador to Iran who will advises the government, said that if the Iranian president were to lose power “someone else would come to power, someone less hostile, and the question of whether they have the nuclear capability will be less important” (Ricard Boudreaux/Los Angeles Times, Feb. 7).

In Kuwait City yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the possibility remains for negotiations between Iran and the international community regarding Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, Agence France-Presse reported.

“Even if the United Nations has decided on sanction, the door for negotiations remains open,” Merkel, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.  “I hope that reason will prevail and that we will be able to hold talks again” (Agence France-Presse/IranMania, Feb. 6)

There are no plans for military strikes on Iran, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday.

“You can’t take any option off the table, but nobody is talking or planning military intervention.  That’s now what the international community wants.  It’s not what we want,” he said (Thomas Wagner, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 6).

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