JERUSALEM: Iranian vote unlikely to change Tehran's nuclear policy - Israel's Netanyahu

Record ID: 837972

  • Title: JERUSALEM: Iranian vote unlikely to change Tehran's nuclear policy - Israel's Netanyahu
  • Date: 17th June 2013
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JUNE 17, 2013) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU PREPARING FOR INTERVIEW NETANYAHU'S EYES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "The Iranian election clearly reflects deep disaffection of the Iranian people with its regime, but unfortunately it doesn't have the power to change Iran's nuclear ambitions which are determined and guided by... not by the President but by the Supreme ruler, Ayatollah Khamenei. He remains committed to pursuing the path of arming Iran with nuclear weapons and I am afraid the elections are unlikely to change that." NETANYAHU'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "If there is one thing that will destabilise the world, that would put everybody in jeopardy, that would change history, is that if Iran is allowed to achieve nuclear weapons, this will be a pivot of history and people have to be consistent, they have to see the important thing. And the important thing is, does Iran veer away from that, that is does it make a U-turn and go the other direction. Not whether it smiles or presents this or that more respectable face. What it does, not what it says it will do." NETANYAHU'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "Well I think the crucial test is how serious they are, and the way that you will know if they are serious is whether... not how they spin the elections but whether they stopped the centrifuges from spinning and the crucial test is whether they stop nuclear enrichment, the enrichment of fissile nuclear material for a bomb and whether they take out the material that they have already enriched. These are the, this is the acid test that the UN Security Council plays before the regime and that remains a test to whether they are serious. I think we should look at them by what they do, not by what they say, not what they say they will do but what they actually do." NETANYAHU BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "The red line hasn't changed, neither has the Iranian pursuit of approaching it gradually with running out the clock, buying time, putting up a more respectable face, these are all tactics, again and again and again. Under a previously popular elected president, under a previous sustained efforts of this unchanged regime. They have not been wavering in their goal to achieve enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb. They should be stopped. They should not be allowed to pursue this." NETANYAHU SPEAKING NETANYAHU'S EYES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "I can understand the decision of President Obama. I think what's happening in Syria is a tremendous tragedy, a tragedy, I mean you had just a savage war that has claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 civilians, many of them innocent civilians, children, families, so I can understand that decision." NETANYAHU LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "I will seek a negotiated settlement where you have a demilitarised Palestinian state that recognize the Jewish state. Secretary Kerry is trying to restart the negotiations. I am for, I am willing to enter them immediately without preconditions and I hope that the Palestinian president responds to this." NETANYAHU AT END OF INTERVIEW ISRAELI FLAG
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACB9MM365V87W4QJARJPDBREZR
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Iran's election was unlikely to bring about any change in nuclear policy and urges the international community.


    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday (June 17) that Iran's election showed popular discontent with the Tehran government but was unlikely to bring about any change in nuclear policy.
    "The Iranian election clearly reflects deep disaffection of the Iranian people with its regime, but unfortunately it doesn't have the power to change Iran's nuclear ambitions which are determined and guided by... not by the President but by the Supreme ruler, Ayatollah Khamenei. He remains committed to pursuing the path of arming Iran with nuclear weapons and I am afraid the elections are unlikely to change that," Netanyahu told Reuters in an interview.
    Netanyahu said it was Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and not the newly elected president Hassan Rohani - a former nuclear negotiator widely seen as a moderate - who set nuclear policy that has been challenged by tough economic sanctions and the prospect of military action.
    He called for continued international pressure on Iran to curb nuclear efforts which Israel and the West fear are aimed at developing atomic weapons.
    "If there is one thing that will destabilise the world, that would put everybody in jeopardy, that would change history, is that if Iran is allowed to achieve nuclear weapons, this will be a pivot of history and people have to be consistent, they have to see the important thing. And the important thing is, does Iran veer away from that, that is does it make a U-turn and go the other direction. Not whether it smiles or presents this or that more respectable face. What it does, not what it says it will do," Netanyahu said.
    "Well I think the crucial test is how serious they are, and the way that you will know if they are serious is whether... not how they spin the elections but whether they stopped the centrifuges from spinning," Netanyahu added.
    Iran denies that it wants nuclear weapons and says its atomic programme is focused exclusively on civilian needs.
    Rohani was viewed as moderate by comparison with the other presidential candidates. His emphatic election victory on Sunday surprised many Western governments.
    Iran's nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005, Rohani said on Monday that Tehran would be more transparent about its nuclear activities in the future.
    However, Netanyahu, who views Iran's nuclear programme as an existential threat for Israel, quoted a 2004 speech in which Rohani openly acknowledged developing Iran's nuclear capabilities while all the while holding talks with Europeans.
    "The red line hasn't changed, neither has the Iranian pursuit of approaching it gradually with running out the clock, buying time, putting up a more respectable face, these are all tactics, again and again and again," Netanyahu said.
    Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only atomic power, has signalled it could take military action against Iran if sanctions and diplomacy fail to bring about a change.
    In a speech to the United Nations last September, Netanyahu drew a "red line" for Iran's uranium enrichment - the point at which it could swiftly upgrade its stockpiles to build a bomb. Officials put this at 250 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium.
    Since then, the Iranians have converted some of their enriched uranium into a powder, staying below the threshold set by Netanyahu, in a move that some experts say has enabled Tehran effectively to circumvent the Israeli threat.
    Netanyahu said he would not be setting any further red lines, but added that world powers had to persuade Iran to halt all enrichment and remove the uranium stockpiles.
    "The red line hasn't changed, neither has the Iranian pursuit of approaching it gradually with running out the clock, buying time, putting up a more respectable face, these are all tactics, again and again and again. Under a previously popular elected president, under a previous sustained efforts of this unchanged regime. They have not been wavering in their goal to achieve enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb. They should be stopped. They should not be allowed to pursue this," he said.
    The United States has said it will not let Iran obtain the bomb, but in recent weeks the White House has been more focused on the civil war in Syria, announcing at the weekend that it was prepared to arm rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
    When asked about the U.S. step, the Israeli leader said: "I can understand the decision of President Obama. I think what's happening in Syria is a tremendous tragedy, a tragedy, I mean you had just a savage war that has claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 civilians, many of them innocent civilians, children, families, so I can understand that decision."
    Netanyahu has previously cautioned against such a move, worried that the weapons could fall into the wrong hands and be turned against Israel, which shares a tense frontier with Syria.
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