Wednesday, April 09, 2008

'We won't be able to deter nuclear Iran'

Jonathan Beck
THE JERUSALEM POST
Apr. 9, 2008

"Iran will be the first nuclear state in history against which deterrence won't work, even if the deterrent is nuclear," opposition leader and Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu said at an international conference titled "Russia, the Middle East and the Challenge of Radical Islam," held Wednesday at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem under the auspices of the center's Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies and the Eurasian Institute of the Inter-Disciplinary Center, Herzliya. "Nothing will stop the Iranians, not the use of force and not a fear of being hit in retaliation," he said, adding that "every Israeli withdrawal from territories it controls leaves room for Iranian terror to enter." Netanyahu added that "if in the past Hizbullah was a state within the state of Lebanon, it seems today that the government of Lebanon is a state within a Hizbullah stronghold."

"In the last thirty years, we have been living in a world where Sunni extremists succeed in attacking targets in the Western world while on the other hand, Shi'ite Iran is rapidly advancing to the point of no return in its nuclear aspirations," the Likud leader said.

Regarding the conflict with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said there was "no chance that moderate factors in the Palestinian Authority will succeed in halting terror or replacing Israeli forces in securing the territory. Israel should ensure its safety on its own and provide Palestinians with the financial growth they aspire to, in order to create real peace partners."

Netanyahu finished his speech by stating that "unlike the common belief that peace will bring about financial improvement, history teaches us that the opposite is far truer."

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