As the Obama administration prepares to communicate its desire to hold direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that Israel was still expecting the international community to ratchet up economic sanctions against Iran as well as present Iran with a credible military option.
Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said that a "month has gone by since the elections in Iran, and Iran is still galloping forward rapidly toward developing military nuclear capability. It is expanding and enhancing its enrichment facilities while simultaneously building a plutonium reactor with two channels of obtaining material for a nuclear bomb. At the same time, it is also expanding its stores of ballistic missiles, again, and threatening not only us but also the entire West as well as the East."
Netanyahu added that Israel was "determined" to "stand firm behind our demands, which the international community should be making as well: first, to end all enrichment; second, to remove all the enriched material [from Iran]; and third, to decommission the illegal nuclear facility in Qom. We believe that now, more than ever, in light of Iran's advances, it is important to step up economic sanctions and present Iran with a credible military option."
On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration was preparing to communicate to Iran's president-elect its desire to hold direct negotiations in the coming weeks over Tehran's nuclear program.
Quoting Obama administration officials, the Journal reported that since his election in June, Hasan Rouhani had sent positive signals both publicly and privately about his interest in engaging with the international community on the nuclear issue.
The Journal also reported that according to U.S. and U.N. officials, Iran has been installing and running more advanced centrifuge machines, called the IR-2, at the fuel production facilities at both Qom and the city of Natanz. The machines are seen capable of tripling Iran's production rate of nuclear fuel and drastically reduce the time it would need to break out and produce weapons-grade materials.
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