'Few months' to stop Iran
2006-09-17 22:21
Washington - Israel's foreign minister
Tzipi Livni said on Sunday that the world may have as little as
"a few months" to avoid a nuclear Iran and called for
sanctions.
"The crucial moment is not the day of the bomb. The crucial
moment is the day in which Iran will master the enrichment, the
knowledge of enrichment," she said on CNN's Late Edition.
Livni, whose country is the only Middle East power
possessing nuclear weapons, said she did not want to identify a
point of "no return" in the controversy over Iran's nuclear
programme.
The Iranians, she said, "are trying to send a message that
it's too late, you can stop your attempts because it's too
late. It's not too late.
"They have a few more months," she
said.
"The world cannot afford a nuclear Iran," Livni said. "I
believe that this is time for sanctions."
Hamas
Iran, whose president last year called for Israel to be
"wiped off the map", denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.
Livni said Israel would like to help strengthen the more
moderate elements within the Palestinian Authority - such as
President Mahmoud Abbas - at the expense of the militant Hamas
movement, which swept to power after winning January
elections.
Livni called on the international community to unite to
make Hamas take certain steps as a prelude to talks.
She did
not specify the steps, but did mention Israel's demand that
Hamas release an Israeli soldier captured in June.
"If the international community shows determination in the
next few weeks, maybe this is the moment in which Abu Mazen can
be strengthened and Hamas will have to do something," she said,
referring Abbas.
Abbas and Hamas, which seeks Israel's destruction, accused
each other on Sunday of trying to derail a planned unity
government that Palestinian officials hope will lift Western
sanctions imposed after Hamas' election victory.