Israel has warned that “all options” were on the table, including military action, to foil Iran’s nuclear ambitions but insisted that all diplomatic channels must be exhausted first.
Israel has vowed to foil Iran’s nuclear plans at any cost
JERUSALEM: Israel has warned that “all options” were on the table, including military action, to foil Iran’s nuclear ambitions but insisted that all diplomatic channels must be exhausted first.
“Israel cannot let Iran get to the point of nuclearisation,” transportation minister Shaul Mofaz, who is in charge of Israel’s strategic dialogue with the US on Iran, was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying.
“All options are on the table. If there won’t be a choice other than a nuclear Iran or a military option, it’s clear what our decision has to be,” he added repeating his previous assertion of preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear capability at any cost.
However, Mofaz, a former Chief of Staff and Defence Minister, also said that all diplomatic alternatives must be exhausted before an attack was considered.
“Iran had succeeded in using the diplomatic process to stall time as it expedited its production of centrifuges, warheads and missiles that could reach every European capital,” he added.
Mofaz was blamed for a record rise in gas prices worldwide after he told a daily on June six that Israel would attack Iran, if it did not cease its nuclear programme. The minister, however, denied that his statement was linked to the soaring fuel prices.
Mofaz will head to Washington later this month for a meeting with key officials in which joint policies on Iran could be re-evaluated, the Post reported.
Meanwhile, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator said he hoped for “good and constructive” talks when he left Tehran on Friday to meet world powers in Geneva on the country’s disputed nuclear program.
The United States is sending an envoy to the talks for the first time, seeking to underline to the Islamic Republic and others that Washington wants a diplomatic solution to the impasse.
That surprise US move has raised hopes that the talks will help to defuse growing tensions over a nuclear program which the West fears is a cover for making bombs. Tehran says it is aimed solely at generating electricity.
In a further indication of a possible thaw, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki raised the prospect of talks on restoring fractured relations between Iran and the United States. Washington has had no relations with Iran since 1980.
“I think there may be talks on both the US founding an interest preserving bureau in Iran and flights between the two countries,” Mottaki said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}