Netanyahu says world inching closer to Israel's position on Iran

The 'gap in understanding' between Israel and the world over Iran is narrowing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

Disputed elections in Iran and the uncovering of a secret uranium enrichment plant near the Iranian city of Qom had alerted the world to the growing Iranian threat, Netanyahu said.

"Now the international community has an obligation to intervene to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," the prime minister told a conference of Jewish leaders from South America.

The world must now act to impose heavy restrictions on Iran, Netanyahu said.

"Watered down sanctions, modest sanctions, will not do the job," he said adding that new measures must aim to curtail Iran's oil exports and energy supply.

Israel has urged the United Nations Security Council to impose "crippling" sanctions on Iran, which announced in February that it had begun production of 20-percent-enriched uranium - potentially a significant step toward a nuclear weapon.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak hinted yesterday that Israel had not ruled out independent action against Iran.

"The world is very aware that Iran continues to display open hostility and hatred toward the Middle East, through means of funding and the transfer of weaponry to Hezbollah and Hamas," he said in a speech to newly commissioned army officers. "We are prepared to make firm decisions, for the sake of a better future."

Tehran defiant

Tehran's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday Iran would not give up uranium enrichment and the West must get used to an Iran that is a "master of enrichment."

"Iran will never give up enrichment - at any price. Even the threat of military attack will not stop us," Ali Asghar Soltanieh said in an interview to New Statesman, a British current affairs magazine.

Iran was "always ready to talk in a civilized manner," the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said. "But the West just has to cope with a strong Iran, a country with thousands of years of civilization, that is now the master of enrichment. I know it is hard for them to digest, but it is the reality."

New Statesman said the interview was conducted in Vienna "one recent Sunday" but did not give the date.

Soltanieh said the language of threats reflected a "colonialist mentality".

"By threatening Iran with the Security Council, with sanctions, with military action, you are just making life more difficult for yourself - it doesn't work," he said.

Soltanieh said U.S. President Barack Obama hadn't come through on his slogan for change.

"Whether he can translate those words into action, we will have to see. So far, Obama has been unable to deliver, and on occasion has resorted to using the same language of threats as (former President) George W. Bush. This is very disappointing," he said.

Two more back sanctions

Iran will have more than the United States and Israel to deal with as it forges ahead with its nuclear program. Austria and France are now equally committed to imposing sanctions on Iran, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger told Haaretz yesterday. Spindelegger is in Israel on a visit.

In speaking about his government's "support" for sanctions against Iran to get Tehran to drop its nuclear weapons program, Spindelegger revealed that the Austrian government had "influenced" OMV, a major Vienna-base energy firm, to divest from a project in Iran last year.

Asked whether the decision in October 2009 by OMV to walk away from Iran's South Pars gas field development project was the result of government intervention, Spindelegger said: "Maybe yes, because the position of the Austrian government, as conveyed to OMV's leadership, has strong influence."

In April 2007, OMV signed a contentious 22 billion euro deal with Iran for the gas field's development. An OMV senior executive cited concerns about seeing a return on the investment when asked about the decision to pull out in October.

"From a historic point of view, there have been good relations [between Iran and Austria] for many years, and we've been for dialogue with Iran so it would not go through with its enrichment program," said Spindelegger, whose country has often been described as a key element in Iran's efforts to circumvent sanctions.

"It looked like they [the Iranians] could reach an agreement - but the announcements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his colleagues from the government show that the time of patience is over," Spindelegger said. "We have to react now, we have to discuss at the United Nations Security Council level more effective sanctions."