JERUSALEM: Israeli ministers denounce Iran's nuclear plant, while Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomes direct talks

Record ID: 313581

  • Title: JERUSALEM: Israeli ministers denounce Iran's nuclear plant, while Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomes direct talks
  • Date: 23rd August 2010
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (AUGUST 22, 2010) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ENTERING WEEKLY CABINET MEETING ISRAELI MINISTER OF SCIENCE DANIEL HERSHKOWITZ TALKING TO REPORTER AHEAD OF CABINET MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI MINISTER OF SCIENCE DANIEL HERSHKOWITZ SAYING: "I think that Iran is a threat not only for the State of Israel, it is the threat for the whole world, for the whole free world." ISRAELI MINISTER FOR MINORITIES AFFAIRS AVISHAY BRAVERMAN TALKING TO REPORTER AHEAD OF CABINET MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI MINISTER FOR MINORITIES AFFAIRS AVISHAY BRAVERMAN, SAYING: "I call to the Prime Minister that he will go to Washington willing to move forward, because if we will just do the talks for the sake of talks, and things won't happen, later, we will have a major disaster on our hands." CABINET MINISTER WALKING TOWARDS MEETING ISRAELI MINISTER FOR NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES UZI LANDAU SPEAKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI MINISTER FOR NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES UZI LANDAU, SAYING: "I think what will happen is what has been happening over the past 20 years, since and including Oslo. That is, we have had negotiations with them, we had continued construction in all of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria without any problem. All of a sudden it has become a problem. If you start negotiations, unconditional negotiations, one cannot accept a condition that the freeze should continue. What will continue is the natural activity that used to be there all the years around." CABINET MEETING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "Achieving a peace agreement between us and the Palestinian Authority is difficult, but possible. We are coming to the talks with a real desire to reach a peace accord between the two peoples while preserving Israel's national interests, primarily security." MORE OF MINISTERS DURING CABINET MEETING
  • Embargoed: 7th September 2010 13:00
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  • Story Text: An Israeli minister on Sunday (August 22) denounced Iran's fueling up of its first nuclear power plant, saying Teheran poses a threat not just to the Jewish state.
    "I think that Iran is a threat not only for the State of Israel, it is the threat for the whole world, for the whole free world," Israeli minister of science Daniel Hershkowitz said ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
    Israel, widely assumed to be the only Middle East country to have nuclear weapons, has said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence, raising concerns the Jewish state could attack Iran's nuclear sites. On Saturday (August 21), the Islamic Republic celebrated the launch of its reactor in Bushehr, which it expects to use soon to generate electricity.
    The United States has sought to allay Israel's fears of Iran's program, which much of the West assesses is destined to reduce atomic weapons, though Iran says it wants nuclear power solely for energy production.
    Ahead of the Israeli cabinet meeting, ministers also commented on the upcoming relaunch of direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
    "I call (on) the Prime Minister that he will go to Washington willing to move forward, because if we will just do the talks for the sake of talks, and things won't happen, later, we will have a major disaster on our hands," Israeli minister for minorities affairs Avishay Braverman told reporters.
    "We have had negotiations with them, we had continued construction in all of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) without any problem. All of a sudden it has become a problem. If you start negotiations, unconditional negotiations, one cannot accept a condition that the freeze should continue. What will continue is the natural activity that used to be there all the years around," Uzi Landau, minister for national infrastructures said.
    Israel and the Palestinians accepted on Friday (August 20) an invitation by the United States and other powers to restart direct talks on September 2 in a modest step toward forging a deal within 12 months to create a Palestinian state and peacefully end one of the world's most intractable conflicts.
    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President Barack Obama on September 1, before formally resuming direct negotiations the following day at the State Department in Washington.
    Netanyahu quickly accepted the U.S. invitation and said reaching a deal would be possible but difficult.
    "Achieving a peace agreement between us and the Palestinian Authority is difficult, but possible. We are coming to the talks with a real desire to reach a peace accord between the two peoples while preserving Israel's national interests, primarily security," Netanyahu told his ministers on Sunday.
    After a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday (August 20), the Palestinian leadership announced its acceptance of the invitation for face-to-face peace talks with Israel. But Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, warned that the Palestinians would pull out of the new talks if the Israelis allow a return to settlement building on lands that the Palestinians seek for a future state. Israel's 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank is due to end on September 26.
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