By installing new, faster centrifuges, Iran is shortening by one-third the time it will take to produce “one nuclear bomb’s worth of highly enriched uranium,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Netanyahu, speaking to the annual meeting in Jerusalem of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said the Iranians had not crossed the red line he outlined during his speech to the UN in September, but that the faster centrifuges means it will take them less time to do so.
In September, he said the Iranians could reach that point by the spring or the summer.
“I drew a line at the UN, they haven’t crossed that line, but what they are doing is shortening the time it will take them to cross that line,” he said. “This has to be stopped for the interest of peace and security for the entire world.”
Netanyahu reiterated his position that the way to stop the Iranians is to “put greater pressure on them, upgrade the sanctions.” Plus, he said, “they have to know that if the sanctions and diplomacy fail, they will face a credible military threat. That is essential, and nothing else will do the job, and it is getting closer.”
Turning to Syria, Netanyahu described it as an “undeveloped country with the world’s most developed weapons.” In addition to chemical weapons, he said, Syria has “other strategic weapons that can change the balance of power in the Middle East.”
Netanyahu said Israel would not “sit idly by and let those weapons fall into the hands of terrorists
