World’s future at stake, says Netanyahu

IRAN

IRAN will have enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb by next summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned yesterday.

He urged the international community to draw a clear ‘‘red line’’ to stop Iran in its tracks.

In a bold challenge to Washington and the West, he said it was getting ‘‘late, very late’’ to stop Iran and that ‘‘the future of the world’’ was at stake.

He told the United Nations General Assembly that Iran would become a nuclear power unless it was stopped by next summer.

Sharply raising the pressure on President Barack Obama, Netanyahu clarified for the first time where he expected the US to set Iran a ‘‘red line’’ that would trigger an American military response, although he did not explicitly call for that action.

He used a crude diagram to show the progress Iran had made towards a bomb, drawing a red line in marker pen at the point where he said Iran must be stopped, before the 90 per cent level.

The stunt was instantly mocked by online commentators, but could prove an effective aide memoire for the public. ‘‘Red lines don’t lead to war, red lines prevent war,’’ he said. ‘‘Nothing could imperil the world more than a nuclear-armed Iran.’’

Netanyahu said Iran had completed the first stage of uranium enrichment. ‘‘Iran is 70 per cent of the way there and . . . well into the second stage. By next summer, at current enrichment rates, they will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage. From there it is only a few more weeks before they have enriched enough for a bomb.’’

Netanyahu has repeatedly argued that time is running out to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power and the threat of force must be seriously considered. ‘‘I believe that faced with a clear red line, Iran will back down – and it will give more time for sanctions and diplomacy,’’ he said.

‘‘The only way you can credibly prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is to prevent them from enriching enough uranium.’’

Israeli leaders have issued warnings in recent weeks suggesting they may soon stage a unilateral military strike, flouting US wishes, if Iran’s uranium enrichment programme continues.

The Obama Administration has urgently sought to hold off Israeli military action, which would be likely to pull the US into a conflict and cause region-wide mayhem on the eve of American elections, which are on November 6.

Israel considers a nucleararmed Iran to be an existential threat, citing Iranian denials of the Holocaust, its calls for Israel’s destruction, its development of missiles capable of striking the Jewish state and its support for hostile Arab militant groups.

‘‘Given this record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons, just imagine Iranian aggression with nuclear weapons,’’ Netanyahu said. ‘‘To understand what the world would be like with a nuclear-armed Iran, just imagine the world with a nuclear-armed al Qaeda.’’

Netanyahu’s emphasis on a military response was, however, undermined by his own foreign ministry. A confidential report leaked hours before his address concluded sanctions on Iran were having a much more devastating effect than previously thought.

The document concluded that Western sanctions had brought enormous pressure to bear on the Iranian regime and triggered such widespread discontent within the country that the government was vulnerable to a popular revolt.

It noted that Iranian energy exports had fallen by 50 per cent since the imposition of a European Union oil embargo earlier this year.