Netanyahu: Iran 'Weeks Away' From Crossing Red Line

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Netanyahu: Iran 'Weeks Away' From Crossing Red Line

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu launched a rhetorical offensive against Iran on Sunday. The move came amid unease that the world might be enticed by a “compromise proposal” that Jerusalem believes Tehran is hatching, and concern that regional turmoil was distracting everyone’s attention from Iran’s nuclear march.

Senior Israeli officials said the Iranians were considering a proposal whereby they would agree to a temporary halt of uranium enrichment to 20 percent, and even agree to convert some of that enriched material to a lower grade, in return for a partial lifting of sanctions.

“This is an insignificant and meaningless concession,” one senior official said.

“The Iranians have invested a lot in upgrading centrifuges and have the technological ability to replenish their stockpiles within a few weeks. We will totally oppose this sort of proposal because it does not offer a real solution.”

Netanyahu, meanwhile, told an American audience on CBS News’s Face the Nation that regarding the 20% enriched uranium, the Islamic Republic was just 60 kilograms short of crossing his “red line.”

He defined this line – beyond which the Iranians should not be allowed to proceed – as being the possession of 250 kg. of 20% enriched uranium, enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb. He said they now had 190 kg., up from about 110 six to eight months ago.

Netanyahu said the Iranians were also building “faster centrifuges that would enable them to jump the line at a much faster rate. That is, within a few weeks.”

“They’re getting closer,” he said. “They should understand that they’re not going to be allowed to cross it.”

Asked when he would make a decision to attack, Netanyahu responded: “I can tell you I won’t wait until it’s too late.” He added that it was “important to understand that we cannot allow it to happen,” and that the Israeli and US clocks on this matter were “ticking at a different pace.”

“We’re closer [to Iran] than the United States,” he said.

“We’re more vulnerable. And therefore, we’ll have to address this question of how to stop Iran, perhaps before the United States does. But as the prime minister of Israel, I’m determined to do whatever is necessary to defend my country, the one and only Jewish state, from a regime that threatens us with renewed annihilation.”

Netanyahu’s tough rhetoric is widely seen as an attempt to reinsert a sense of urgency regarding Iran, urgency that some in Jerusalem feel has been lost due to the election last month of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s new president, and also because of the tumultuous events roiling the region.

Representatives of the six world powers known as the P5+1 that are negotiating with Iran – the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Brussels to discuss strategy now that Rouhani is about to take over.