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Red line for Iran by next spring: Netanyahu
October 3, 2012 | Jewish Tribune
Israeli Primi Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showing a cartoonish diagram of a bomb during his address to the United Nations General Assembly last Thursday ( UN Photo / J Carrier)
Red line for Iran by next spring: Netanyahu
(JTA) NEW YORK – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly that the “red line” he is seeking as a warning to Iran to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program would come as early as next spring.
The forecast, while coming in a speech last Thursday that emphasized his concerns that the international community was ignoring Iran’s capability at its peril, was nonetheless notable for setting a deadline months after the US presidential election in November.
Netanyahu in recent weeks has been pressing the Obama administration and the international community to come up with red lines that would trigger military action against Iran, and Israeli officials have hinted that Israel might strike Iran as early as this fall.
Using a chart picturing a bomb, Netanyahu told the General Assembly that Iran had achieved a low-enriched uranium capacity and was close to reaching a medium-enrichment capacity. Together, he said, those capabilities would supply Iran with the 90 per cent of the uranium needed for a bomb.
The remaining 10 per cent requires high-enriched uranium, Netanyahu said.
“And by next spring, at most by next summer at current enrichment rates, they will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage,” the Israeli leader said. “From there it’s only a few months, possibly a few weeks, before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb.”
Using a marker, Netanyahu drew the red line on the chart at the spot between 90 per cent enrichment and the remaining 10 per cent.
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