WarSclerotic

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he doubts the sanctions being mulled against Iran would be tough enough to rein in the Islamic republic’s nuclear ambitions.

“I doubt that such a programme will have teeth,” he said at a news conference in Jerusalem, referring to US-led efforts to slap new UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance.

Israel shares the US conviction that Iran, its arch-foe, is seeking to obtain nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.

The sole, if undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, the Jewish state has repeatedly said it would not rule out a military option in dealing with Iran.

Netanyahu made the comments ahead of next week’s international summit on nuclear security summit in Washington, which he will attend.

The US administration said in a policy document presented on Tuesday that it would only use atomic arms in “extreme circumstances” and would not attack non-nuclear states, although Iran and North Korea were exceptions.

The Nuclear Posture Review described “nuclear terrorism” as an immediate and extreme threat, with efforts to prevent the spread of atomic weapons given top priority.

“This is a very, very serious issue that nuclear weapons, even crude nuclear weapons would find their way into the hands of terrorists and the consequences could be very very dire for all of humanity,” Netanyahu said.

Responding to a question, he deflected concerns the spotlight could be turned onto Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

“I’m not concerned that anyone will think that Israel is a terrorist regime. Everybody knows a terrorist and rogue regime when they see one, and believe me they see quite a few around Israel.”

Israel has never publicly acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert in 1965.

“This policy of ambiguity constitutes one of the pillars of Israeli national security and the Americans consider it very important,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told army radio.

“There is no reason for the Americans to change their approach or for Israel to change its position,” he said.

For the past four decades, Israeli governments have insisted the Jewish state will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

“This policy will continue and no pressure from any country will make it change,” Ayalon said.

In a slight departure from the usual wording, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, said in an interview with CNN last year that “to introduce” meant “to deploy.”

Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear weapons.

In 1969, Israeli leaders undertook not to make any statement on their country’s nuclear potential or carry out any nuclear test, while Washington agreed to refrain from exerting pressure on the issue.

The Israeli programme is under military censorship.

Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to avoid inspections by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

This entry was posted on April 7, 2010 at 7:29 PM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.