Israel Demands That Iran Be Given An Ultimatum On Nukes

From The Telegraph.

Israel demands Iran ultimatum


Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli strategic affairs minister, said Iran's Islamic leaders were "talking and laughing their way to a bomb" after two days of talks between the world powers and Iranian diplomats finished without an accord.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said that Iran was "far short" of what is required to achieve a breakthrough at the talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, between six world powers that ended on Saturday.

"We look to Iran to consider carefully whether it wants to continue on its current course, and face increasing pressure and isolation from the international community, or to enter into meaningful negotiations," he said.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, hinted that the possibility of setting a deadline as he warned that negotiations were "not an interminable process".

"It is important to continue to talk and to try to find common ground," Mr Kerry said. "So we hope that out of Almaty will come a narrowing of some of the differences."

But Israel said that the failure of the talks demonstrated that Iran was using the process to buy time. "This failure was predictable," said Mr Steinitz, a close ally of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister.

"Israel believes that without a significant and tangible threat, including a short timetable, it is clear that achieving the dismantling of the nuclear project will not be possible."

Accusing Iran of playing for time by negotiating while continuing its nuclear activities, he told Israel Army Radio that action should be taken "within a few weeks, a month" if it did not stop enriching uranium, a process that can be used to build an atomic bomb.

"Sanctions are not enough and the talks are not enough," he said. "The time has come to place before the Iranians a military threat or a form of red line, an unequivocal red line by the entire world, by the US and the West in order to get results."