יובל שטייניץ יו"ר ועדת חוץ וביטחון
Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Knesset Committee in U.S.: Watch Iran
Knesset Members warn American counterparts of dangers from a nuclear Iran
Members of the Knesset’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, currently in Washington, urged their counterparts in the House of Representatives and the Senate to press the US administration into making the issue of Iran’s nuclear ambition one of its top priorities.
Warning
International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has produced seven tons of gas used for uranium enrichment and enough to produce atomic bomb
“We came to warn the Americans. According to my knowledge it will take Iran no more than two to three years to acquire nuclear weapons,” committee head MK Yuval Steinitz said.
MK Yosef Lapid said that he told the Americans as the last Holocaust survivor sitting in the Knesset, “We are not ready to suffer another Holocaust of six million Jews.”
The Shinui leader told the Americans that “speaking of a threat in ten years is wrong and misleading. If the problem is not dealt with Israel will be facing a nuclear Iran and will therefore have no choice but to act and this is a dreadful scenario.”
Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad said Israeli politicians are united in their views regarding the threat from the Islamic Republic. The disagreement between the U.S. and Israel vis-à-vis Iran is the point of no return. “If we are left with no choice, we will do the job, and that’s the worst option,” Eldad said.
The committee’s members expressed fears that the U.S. is preoccupied with pressing issues at home and abroad, especially on the Iraqi front, and have relegated the Iranian nuclear file to the Europeans.
‘Don’t run out of Iraq'
The Knesset Members warned the U.S. that a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq is likely to destabilize the whole region as fundamental Islamist movement will gain momentum and seek to topple U.S.-friendly regimes like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
