Israeli PM doubts Iran's nuclear capability

Philippine Times (IANS) Thursday 17th April, 2008

Widespread international efforts against Iran's nuclear programme mean Tehran will not have nuclear capability, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks published Thursday.

'There is a powerful international effort that is geared towards preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state,' he said in interviews with the Israeli media to mark the Passover holiday, which begins Saturday night.

'I can tell the citizens of Israel ... that, to the best of my understanding, on the basis of everything that I know and have read, I believe that the effort by the international community, which includes every relevant means, will succeed and Iran will not become a nuclear power,' he continued.

Olmert described the fighting in and around the Gaza Strip, between Israel and Palestinian militias, as 'a daily war'.

'We are operating and we will operate against terrorism; in the last year we killed more than 200 terrorists,' he said. 'We consider Hamas (which administers the Gaza Strip) to be directly and fully responsible for all occurrences in the Gaza Strip and we will extract the price from it.'

Israel killed 20 Palestinians in the Strip Wednesday, in pursuit of groups launching rockets at southern Israel, and in an air strike which hit two houses in the al-Bureij refugee camp.

Page 1 of 2 | Next

Share this article:
Back to Philippine Times

Comments

  • No comments yet for this story

  • Have your say

    • By submitting your comment you agree to our terms and conditions

    Featured Story

    An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted Philippine Islands region Saturday night, the US Geological Survey said.

    The epicentre had a depth of 8.50 km, reports Xinhua.

    News Survey

    Should tax havens be forced to lift their shroud of secrecy?

    View results

    On Facebook

    Making headlines

    Our nuclear programmes are completely transparent. But we are ready to show greater transparency and make clear for the whole world that the steps of the Islamic Republic of Iran are completely within international frameworks. The sanctions are unfair, the Iranian people are suffering, and our (nuclear) activities are legal. These sanctions are illegal and only benefit Israel.

    Hassan Rouhani

    Iran's president-elect was speaking after his historic election victory.