Lieberman slams U.S. on Iran, settlements

The West's failure to forcefully back the reformist protesters in Iran and its willingness to hold a dialogue with the Islamic regime sends a "bad message," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told TIME magazine.

In a not-so-veiled reference to the Obama administration's willingness to hold negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, the Israeli foreign minister said the recent election upheaval was a missed opportunity for the West.

"This really fanatic extremist regime is still in power, and the young people who are ready to fight and die for change are not getting any real support from the West," Lieberman told TIME. "The fact that this regime continues to be an acceptable partner for dialogue is really a bad message. It shows the bad guys are winners."

Lieberman said the Obama administration is wrong to press its demand that Israel cease all settlement construction in the West Bank and that it was unrealistic for Washington to expect the government to "suffocate our own people."

"We are trying to formulate some understanding with the U.S.," Lieberman told TIME. "We don't speak [with the Americans] of building new settlements. We don't speak of expansion. We try to build only within existing construction lines."

"We cannot suffocate our own people. You know, babies are born. People get married. We cannot stop life. People want to build a synagogue or a kindergarten."

The hawkish foreign minister added that he did not accept the linkage made by many in the West between confronting Islamic radicalism and solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"With 9/11 and terrorist acts in London, Madrid, Bali, in Russia, I can't see any linkage with the Israeli-Palestinian problem," Lieberman told TIME, adding that the conflict in the region was a "clash of values between civilizations."

Lieberman repeated his willingness to meet with Arab leaders to discuss establishing peaceful relations with Israel. In the interview with TIME, the Yisrael Beiteinu sounded a more moderate tone in discussing the future of Israeli Arabs.

Lieberman, who has called for revoking citizenship from those who refuse to swear an oath of loyalty to the state, told TIME that a "transfer of populations" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is neither "acceptable nor possible."

"Maybe some Arabs would prefer to go to a Palestinian state, but if some want to be Israeli citizens, that's their right," he told TIME.