Israeli Leader Sharpens Call on U.S. to Set Limits on Iran

Israeli Leader Sharpens Call on U.S. to Set Limits on Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel harshly criticized the Obama administration on Tuesday over recent statements that the United States would not set deadlines or draw “red lines” for Iranover its disputed uranium enrichment activities, calling such comments a signal to the Iranians that they could build atomic bombs with impunity.

Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks laid bare a thinly disguised disagreement between the United States and Israel over how to deal with Iran, and they threatened to elevate the Iranian uranium enrichment program as a virulent campaign issue less than two months before the American presidential elections.

The remarks were among the strongest Mr. Netanyahu has made over the Iranian enrichment activities, which the Israelis have repeatedly called a clandestine Iranian plan to build nuclear weapons despite Tehran’s denials. Mr. Netanyahu’s government, which considers Iran to be Israel’s most dangerous enemy, has threatened to bomb suspected Iranian enrichment sites.

He appeared to be reacting on Tuesday in particular to an assertion by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in an interview with Bloomberg Radio on Sunday in which she was asked if the administration would articulate explicit consequences for Iran’s refusal to halt its enrichment program, as the United Nations Security Council has repeatedly requested. Mrs. Clinton said “we’re not setting deadlines.”

On Monday, the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, reiterated President Obama’s commitment not to allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and said “it is not useful to be parsing it, to be setting deadlines one way or the other, red lines.”

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu unequivocally rejected those comments. Speaking in English, he said, “The world tells Israel ‘wait, there’s still time.’ And I say, ‘Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

In his remarks, reported by Reuters and other news agencies, he also said: “Now if Iran knows that there is no red line, if Iran knows that there is no deadline, what will it do? Exactly what it’s doing. It’s continuing, without any interference, toward obtaining nuclear weapons capability and from there, nuclear bombs.”

Mr. Netanyahu has said that Israel and the United States were in talks on setting what he has called a “clear red line’ for when Iran’s nuclear program surpasses a threshold of tolerance that would be met with a military response. But Obama administration officials have been more circumspect about those talks, and Mrs. Clinton’s comments on Sunday appeared to contradict Mr. Netanyahu.

President Obama has repeatedly said he would not allow Iran to attain nuclear weapons. His Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, who is friends with Mr. Netanyahu, has accused Mr. Obama of sacrificing Israel’s security, a charge that the administration has summarily rejected as politically motivated to capture the American Jewish vote.Last month the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear monitor of the United Nations, reported that Iran had sharply increased its capacity to enrich uranium with centrifuges assembled at a subterranean site in the holy Iranian city of Qom. Iran has said its nuclear program is purely for civilian use.