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US Ready with Israel to Attack Iran, If Needed, posted with vodpod

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his skepticism Friday on the outcome of the next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1

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JERUSALEM, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his skepticism Friday on the outcome of the next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 (U.S., U.K, China, Russia, France and Germany) that will take place in Baghdad. The first meeting took place last month in Istanbul.

The talks are meant to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program, which Israel believes is intended for a nuclear weapons arsenal.

Netanyahu made the remarks on the sidelines of a state visit to the Czech Republic days before the second round of talks in Baghdad.

Click play for comments from CBN News Terrorism Analyst Erick Stakelbeck on whether the United States is really prepared to attack Iran.

“Obviously, nothing would be better than to see this issue resolved diplomatically. But I have seen no evidence that Iran is serious about stopping its nuclear weapons program. It looks as though they see these talks as another opportunity to devise and delay just like North Korea did for years,” Netanyahu said.

The U.S. is hoping the talks will succeed. Earlier this week, U.S. envoy to Israel Dan Shapiro told the Israeli Bar Association the U.S. is “ready” for a military option should it come to that.

“The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready,” Shapiro said, The Associated Press reported.

But Netanyahu said the Iranians could go from meeting to meeting making empty promises, even agreeing in principle, but not implement changes. Or they could agree to implement something as long as it does not “materially derail their nuclear weapons program.”

“Iran is good at playing this chess game,” Netanyahu continued. “They know that sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn to save the king.”

Netanyahu said the goal of the talks should be clear: freeze all uranium enrichment inside Iran; remove enriched material from Iran, and dismantle the nuclear facility at Qom.

“When this goal is achieved, I will be the first to applaud.  Until then, count me among the skeptics,” he said.

This entry was posted on May 19, 2012 at 6:26 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.