BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said that Iran has not yet crossed the nuclear ‘red line’ which he set out at a speech to the United Nations (UN) in September, but that it was proceeding towards it and must be stopped.

Speaking at a meeting of his Likud-Beitenu Knesset faction yesterday, Netanyahu said “Iran is continuing with its nuclear programme. It has yet to cross the red line I presented at the United Nations, but it is approaching it systematically,” adding “It must not be allowed to cross it.”

Netanyahu’s remarks have been widely interpreted in the Israeli media as a response to comments made last week by former-director of Israel’s military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, who appeared to indicate that Iran had already crossed such a point in its nuclear development. In September, Netanyahu used a UN speech to vividly illustrate the point at which Iran will possess enough fissile material to construct a nuclear bomb. Netanyahu drew the ‘red line’ at 250 kilograms of uranium, enriched to twenty percent, which is considered just a small step away from weapons grade quality material. At present, it is believed that Iran has yet to develop such quantities of twenty percent enriched uranium, but has recently increased the number of advanced centrifuges which could quickly enrich material.

Netanyahu’s comments yesterday also come just a day after former-prime minister Ehud Olmert told a conference in New York that the Iranian nuclear threat had been overblown, he said “I think that we have exaggerated, for a long time, the potential threat of Iran possessing nuclear power.”

Meanwhile, international attempts to find a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear development continue to flounder, with talks earlier this month reaching an impasse between Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers – the US, UK, China, Russia, France and Germany.