Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked the Holocaust in an impassioned call for Iran to curtail its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Netanyahu, warning that Iran could produce a functional nuclear weapon by summer 2013, urged world leaders to impose strict limits on the program’s expansion. Click below to read the rest of the story.
“There is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs: That’s by placing a clear red line on Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” Netanyahu said in a strongly worded United Nations address.
“At stake is not the future of my country, but the world,” he said. “And nothing would imperil the world more than the arming of Iran with nuclear weapons.”
Netanyahu stressed that time was running out, predicting the Iranian government was already 70% of the way toward producing a nuclear weapon.
The prime minister compared the situation to the world’s failure to address the rise of Hitler before World War II.
“Those who opposed that fanaticism waited too long to act,” said Netanyahu, noting that the defeat of Germany came years later “at a terrific cost.”
The veteran Israeli leader said holding the line on Iran now would lead the nation to back down — while creating more time for “sanctions and diplomacy to convince Iran to shut down its nuclear program entirely.”
