Netanyahu Demands More US Threats to Attack Iran

Insists Sanctions Don't Work, Only Threats

by Jason Ditz, January 11, 2011

Addressing foreign journalists today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the notion of more sanctions against the Iranian government was pointless, and insisted rather that only military threats from the US could stop Iran.

“You have to ratchet up the pressure,” Netanyahu said, adding that they needed “a credible military option that is put before them by the international community led by the United States.”

The comments echo previous ones made by Netanyahu during his November US visit, during which he complained that the US wasn’t threatening to attack Iran nearly often enough. At the time US military leaders insisted that they were threatening Iran exactly the right amount.

Netanyahu’s desire to see more threats against Iran comes as Israeli officials publicly insisted Iran’s nuclear program had been set by at least five years by sabotage. Netanyahu was reportedly outraged by the comments, which go against decades of official Israeli policy insisting that Iran is always on the brink of creating a nuclear weapon through its civilian program.

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