Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the United States and the international community Monday to halt Iran’s nuclear program by refusing to export refined petroleum to that country.
If the United Nation’s Security Council fails to impose this kind of “crippling sanction” on Iran, then the US and the international community should take this step on their own, Netanyahu said, in a lengthy interview with ABC.
“If you stop… Iran from importing refined petroleum – that’s a fancy word for gasoline – then Iran simply doesn’t have refining capacity, and this regime comes to a halt. I think that’s crippling sanctions,” the prime minister said.
“Now if the UN Security Council doesn’t pass it because they’ll dilute the resolution to get acquiescence of their members, then certainly the United States and other willing partners in the international community can enforce these sanctions outside the Security Council,” he went on.
“There is a way to deliver these crippling sanctions. This should be done now,” Netanyahu asserted.
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ERUSALEM—The Israeli security establishment is divided over whether it needs Washington's blessing if Israel decides to attack Iran, Israeli officials say, as the U.S. campaign for sanctions drags on and Tehran steadily develops greater nuclear capability.
Some officials here fear that Washington is willing to live with a nuclear-armed Iran, an eventuality that Israel says it won't accept. Compounding Israeli concerns were U.S. statements this past weekend that underscored U.S. resistance to a military option. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday discussed a memo to National Security Adviser James Jones warning that the U.S. needed new strategies, including how to contain a nuclear Iran—suggesting that Iran could reach nuclear capability without any foreign military force trying to stop it.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated Sunday the U.S. position that a military strike against Iran is a "last option."
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