|
Olmert: More sanctions for Iran
25/02/2008 16:06 - (SA)
Tokyo - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert voiced hope on Monday for further sanctions against Iran as the UN Security Council prepared to meet on the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.
"I hope that further sanctions will be taken against Iran," Olmert told reporters in his plane as he headed on a four-day visit to Japan.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday in its latest report that it had made "quite good progress" in its four year-probe into the Iranian nuclear drive.
But crucially, the nuclear watchdog headed by Mohamed el-Baradei said it was still not in a position to determine if Iran's nuclear drive was peaceful.
"The el-Baradei report shows that Iran is pursuing its nuclear programme. If the report had been drafted by Israel, it would have been much clearer," Olmert said.
"The basic fact doesn't change. There is a plan to make non-conventional weapons and it must be stopped," he said.
The five permanent members of the Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - will meet along with Germany on Monday to discuss a draft text on stepping up sanctions on Iran.
Iran, Opec's number two oil exporter, insists its nuclear programme is peaceful and only aimed at generating atomic energy for a growing population whose immense oil and gas reserves will run out in decades.
Israel has had tense relations with Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has frequently lashed out at Israel, predicting the Jewish state's demise and downplaying the extent of the Holocaust.
- AFP
|
News
