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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the UN General Assembly in New York. He said the only way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons was by setting "clear red lines" that if crossed, would result in a military response.
He added Iran will have enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb by next summer. Holding up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb with a fuse, Netanyahu literally drew a red line just below a label reading "final stage" to a bomb, in which it was 90 percent towards having sufficient weapons-grade material.
Netanyahu said, "In the case of Irans nuclear plans to build a bomb, this bomb has to be filled with enough enriched uranium and Iran has to go through three stages. The first stage, they have to enrich enough low enriched uranium. The second stage, they have to enrich enough medium enriched uranium. And the third stage and final stage, they have to enrich enough high enriched uranium for the first bomb. Where is Iran? Now, they are well into the second stage. A red line should be drawn right here."
Netanyahu faced the world body after U.S. President Barack Obama disappointed some Israelis, in his own address to the annual UN General Assembly, by not calling for a deadline to be imposed on Tehran - though he did say time for diplomacy "is not unlimited". Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat and has long threatened to strike it pre-emptively. But world powers have repeatedly asked for sanctions to take time. |
