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Israeli hints at preparation to stop Iran
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-22 15:20
Israel's defense minister hinted Saturday that the Jewish state is preparing
for military action to stop Iran's nuclear program, but said international
diplomacy must be the first course of action.
Italian Foreign
Minister and Deputy Premier Gianfranco Fini, gestures during an interview
with the Associated Press in the foreign ministry in Rome, Friday Jan. 20,
2006. [AP] |
"Israel will not be able to
accept an Iranian nuclear capability and it must have the capability to defend
itself, with all that that implies, and this we are preparing," Shaul Mofaz
said.
His comments at an academic conference stopped short of overtly threatening a
military strike but were likely to add to growing tensions with Iran.
Germany's defense minister said in an interview published Saturday that he is
hopeful of a diplomatic solution to the impasse over Iran's nuclear program, but
argued that "all options" should remain open.
Asked by the Bild am Sonntag weekly whether the threat of a military solution
should remain in place, Franz Josef Jung was quoted as responding: "Yes, we need
all options."
French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that France could respond with
nuclear weapons against any state-sponsored terrorist attack.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Saturday that
Chirac's threats reflect the true intentions of nuclear nations, the official
Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
"The French president uncovered the covert intentions of nuclear powers in
using this lever (nuclear weapons) to determine political games," IRNA quoted
Asefi as saying.
Israel long has identified Iran as its biggest threat and accuses Tehran of
pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is peaceful.
Iran broke U.N. seals at a uranium enrichment plant Jan. 10 and said it was
resuming nuclear research after a 2 1/2-year freeze. Germany, France and Britain
said two days later that talks aimed at halting Iran's nuclear progress were at
a dead end and called for Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, will meet
Feb. 2 to discuss possible referral.
Israel's Mofaz said sanctions and international oversight of Iran's nuclear
program stood as the "correct policy at this time."
In Germany, Jung called himself "confident that there will be a diplomatic
solution in the case of Iran."
Israeli leaders have also repeatedly said they hope the crisis can be
resolved through diplomacy, and they said any military action would have to be
part of an international effort. They have denied having plans for a unilateral
preventive strike.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Tehran might still agree to
Moscow's offer to move its uranium enrichment program to Russia, a step backed
by the United States and Europeans as a way to resolve the deadlock.
Israel's concerns about Iran have grown since the election of Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said last year that Israel should be "wiped
off the map."
On Friday, Iran's Students News Agency reported Friday that Central Bank
governor Ebrahim Sheibani said Iran had begun moving its foreign currency
reserves from European banks and transferring them to an undisclosed location as
protection against possible U.N. sanctions.
Sheibani backed away Saturday from his statement that the transfers were
already underway, and Iran's Central Bank said there had been no change in its
currency policy.
Estimates put Iranian funds in Europe at as much as $50 billion.
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