Israeli PM Urges Rivals to Join Govt, Citing ‘Iran Threat’

Reiterates Opposition to Iran Talks, Calls for Unity Govt

by Jason Ditz, March 04, 2013

With his effort to form a coalition government stumbling along slowly in the face of several long-standing rivalries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted to cut to the chase by playing the Iran card.

Citing the “Iranian threat,” Netanyahu admonished the various rival parties to accept him as leader of a broad coalition government that would be capable of stopping Iran militarily, claiming the enemies of Israel are “unifying” behind Iran’s nuclear program and that Iran is “getting closer” to a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu went on to reiterate his condemnation of last week’s P5+1 peace talks with Iran, following up on daily condemnations by Likud-Beiteinu members of the talks, which have reportedly made significant progress toward a deal, and which Israeli officials appear concerned will throw a monkey-wrench into the plans for a summer war.

Despite Netanyahu’s claims, Iran’s civilian nuclear program continues to use low enriched uranium for purely civilian purposes, and the putative “stockpile” of enriched uranium is not significantly growing since they continue to use it about as fast as they can enrich it.

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