Netanyahu 'red line' demand hardens Iran showdown

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew his Western allies a stark red line, pressuring them to act with a warning that Iran could have a bomb in less than a year. Wielding a red marker pen and a cartoonish diagram of a round bomb with a fizzing fuse, Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that the international community must put a limit on Iran's uranium enrichment. He made no direct threat to launch a unilateral attack, but said Iran's enrichment facilities remain a credible "target" within a shrinking time window. The United States is resisting demands to set a precise deadline for action, but foreign ministers from the major powers met after Netanyahu's speech and called for Iran to act "urgently" to answer their nuclear concerns. "At this late hour, there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs -- and that's by placing a clear red line on Iran's nuclear weapons program," Netanyahu told the 193-member UN assembly. "The red line must be drawn on Iran's nuclear enrichment program because these enrichment facilities are the only nuclear installations that we can definitely see and credibly target." The Israeli leader took his rough diagram of a bomb with him onto the UN stage and used a red marker to put his own limit on what Iran says is peaceful research for nuclear power. Netanyahu claimed Iran is 70 percent of the way toward enriching enough uranium to put itself within reach of a weapon. The Iranian government says it is enriching uranium to 20 percent purity -- a short technical step from the 90 percent needed for a bomb -- for a medical research reactor. The United States and its allies say the effort hides a military goal. "By next spring, at most by next summer at current enrichment rates -- they will have finished the medium enrichment and moved on to the final stage," Netanyahu warned. "From there, it's only a few months, possibly a few weeks, before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb." "Faced with a clear red line, Iran will back down," he added. "Red lines don't lead to war, red lines prevent war." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off threats of an Israeli military strike during his visit to the UN meetings this week. Netanyahu's attack on Iran was one of the fiercest he has made so far, however. "To understand what the world would be like with a nuclear armed Iran, just imagine the world with a nuclear armed Al-Qaeda," he said. The speech also added to pressure on Iran after US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the United States would "do what we must do" to head off an Iranian bomb. The UN Security Council has passed four rounds of sanctions against Iran while the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union have sought to negotiate with the Islamic state. Foreign ministers from the group met after Netanyahu's speech. "We discussed at length the need for Iran to take action urgently as we considered the Iranian nuclear issue," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters. Diplomats said the ministers had discussed possible next steps. Netanyahu said the sanctions, which have badly hit Iran's oil exports, have hurt the economy "but we must face the truth -- sanctions have not stopped Iran's nuclear program either." Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Thursday that a new Israeli government report indicated international sanctions are having a dramatic effect on Iran. An official quoted by the daily said, however, that Israel was pushing the European Union to impose more sanctions. Netanyahu and Obama, who have testy relations, are to speak by telephone on Friday. In his address, the Israeli took care to praise Obama: "I very much appreciate the president's position as does everyone in my country." Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israeli relations at Bar Ilan University in Israel, said Netanyahu had sought to press the United States to names its own "red line". By saying Iran could have a bomb next year, Netanyahu was putting a deadline on himself and the Americans, Gilboa said. "This is a bit of a gamble on Netanyahu's behalf" because Israel will have to attack if Iran's enrichment does not change, he argued. The United States may find the speech extreme, but it could "spur the US and Europeans to impose tighter sanctions and enter nuclear negotiations with Tehran with tougher stances," the expert said.