Netanyahu: Iran Close to Nuclear Weapons

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns that “time is short” before Iran obtains nuclear weapons and poses a direct threat to Israel and the rest of the world.

“Iran poses certainly a great danger to Israel, but it represents an enormous danger to the Middle East and to the world,” Netanyahu said to PBS’s Charlie Rose, during a recent visit to New York to speak at the United Nations.

“This is the premier sponsor of terrorists. I’ve spoken about this issue with all world leaders, and I think that it’s important that everyone understand that Iran with nuclear weapons is a danger to us all.

“Iran supplies terrorists with rockets and many other things. It would give [terrorists] a nuclear umbrella or worse, actually give them nuclear weapons.”

Arab leaders will applaud the imposition of tougher sanctions on Iran, according to the Israeli prime minister, but he cautioned: “Time is short and there’s a lot of work to do.”

Pointing to steps Iran has already taken against Israel, Netanyahu said, “We vacated [Gaza] and Iran essentially walked in with its Hamas proxy, and they’re packing a lot of missiles. We walked out of Lebanon, and Iran walked in with its Hezbollah proxy, and they fired thousands of rockets into the north of Israel.

“The last thing we want is to walk away from the West Bank or pieces of the West Bank and have Iran come in and place thousands of rockets on Tel Aviv.”

But Netanyahu still has hope that stricter international sanctions against Iran could bring down the Islamic Republic.

“I think this regime is a lot weaker than people think,” he said.

“If you have pressures, significant economic pressures on this regime, particularly the importation of gasoline, this might force the regime to choose whether it wants to advance the nuclear program or risk its own viability. It's not been put to that test.

“And I don't believe that the Iranian people will coalesce around a regime it detests. I think the opposite will happen. I think they'll applaud this pressure, because they want to be relieved from this medieval regime, this violent theocracy that is oppressing them and threatening everyone else.”