Netanyahu slams eu’s response on iran
Like ‘appeasement’
Jerusalem • Israeli Prime minister Benjamin netanyahu condemned a European union response on monday to Iran’s breaches of nuclear limitations, saying it recalled failed diplomacy with nazi Germany ahead of the second World War.
“(It) reminds me of the European appeasement of the 1930s,” netanyahu said in a video statement after Eu foreign policy chief Federica mogherini said none of the parties to a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran saw its increased uranium enrichment as “significant non-compliance.”
“then, too, there were those who stuck their head in the sand and did not see the approaching danger,” said netanyahu, who has often cast Iran’s nuclear projects as a mortal menace to Israel and the wider world. Iran denies seeking a nuclear bomb.
“It seems there are those in Europe who will not wake up until Iranian nuclear missiles land on European soil. But then it will be too late, of course,” netanyahu said.
Israel’s main ally the united states quit the Iran nuclear deal last year, deeming it insufficient. that left russia, China, France, Britain and Germany as parties to the deal.
Israel has predicted that, should European powers join Washington in reimposing sanctions on tehran, that could prompt the Iranians to enter talks on a more limiting nuclear accord.
alluding to Israel’s long-standing if veiled threat of a last-resort war against its arch-foe, netanyahu said: “In any event, we will continue to do whatever is necessary to prevent Iran getting nuclear weaponry.”
the remaining parties to the nuclear deal, however, do not intend for now to trigger the pact’s dispute mechanism, mogherini said monday.
she spoke at the end of an European union foreign ministers meeting after Britain said there was only a “small window” of time to salvage the deal, while Iran warned it would ramp up uranium enrichment if the Eu failed to do more to that end.
u.s.-iranian tensions have escalated since u.s. President donald trump decided last year to abandon the nuclear deal under which Iran agreed to curtail its atomic program in return for relief from economic sanctions crippling its economy.
the Eu ministers drew no conclusions on what action should next be taken to head off a feared u.s.-iranian conflict. But by suggesting that Iran’s non-compliance was not significant, it could anger the united states, which last week warned it would intensify sanctions on Iran over its breaches, and it did prompt an immediate outcry from Israel.
Iaea inspectors last week confirmed Iran is now enriching uranium to 4.5 per cent fissile purity, above the 3.67 per cent limit set by its deal, the second breach in as many weeks.