Iran nuclear weapon: Israel says may have to act before US

WASHINGTON: Iran is moving “closer and closer” to building a nuclear weapon and Israel may have to act before the United States does, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday.

“They’re edging up to the red line. They haven’t crossed it yet,” Netanyahu said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “They’re getting closer and closer to the bomb. And they have to be told in no uncertain terms that that will not be allowed to happen.” Netanyahu went on to say that Israel had a more narrow timetable than Washington, implying it may have to take unilateral action to halt Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

“Our clocks are ticking at a different pace. We’re closer than the United States. We’re more vulnerable. And therefore, we’ll have to address this question of how to stop Iran, perhaps before the United States does,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2013.