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Acting PM Ehud Olmert speaks to visiting Jewish American leaders in Jerusalem, Tuesday. (AP)
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| By Associated Press February 15, 2006 |
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Iran's president is obsessed with hatred of Jews and must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons, acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. He also took aim at Hamas, warning Israel would reassess all its relations with the Palestinian Authority once the Islamic militants take power.
Olmert addressed U.S. Jewish leaders in Jerusalem Tuesday evening after Iran announced it has resumed small-scale enrichment of uranium, a step that Western powers fear could bring Iran to the threshold of developing nuclear bombs.
For years, Israeli officials have identified Iran as the country's biggest threat. That fear has heightened since the election of Iran's radical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel's destruction and questioned whether the Holocaust occurred.
A major Iranian newspaper has begun accepting submissions for a contest for cartoons about the Holocaust. The contest was devised by Hamshahri, one of Iran's top five newspapers, in response to publication in the West of caricatures of the Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Olmert said he was extremely concerned by "an Iranian leader who seems to be obsessed with anti-Semitic hatred toward the Jewish people and the state of Israel."
Ahmadinejad is "using the worst anti-Semitic expressions that he could find in the dictionary," he said, adding that his concerns have been compounded by Iran's nuclear program, suspected of aiming toward nuclear weapons capability.
"This has to stop," Olmert said.
Olmert called for "concrete joint action by the international community" to halt Iran's nuclear program. Earlier this month, the U.N. nuclear watchdog referred Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose political and economic sanctions.
Iran has said its nuclear program is strictly for the peaceful purpose of generating energy. But Israeli officials believe Iran is only several years away from possessing atomic weapons.
Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the powerful parliamentary Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, said it is believed that Iran could acquire a nuclear bomb in two or three years.
"It is now clear that the race began again and time is running out," Steinitz told The Associated Press. He did not provide a basis for this assessment, but spoke shortly after his committee was briefed on Iran by the head of Israel's military intelligence.
In his speech, Olmert also ruled out peace talks with the Palestinians unless Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas disarms Hamas.
The Islamic militant group recently swept Palestinian legislative elections and is poised to form a new Cabinet in the coming weeks. Abbas, elected separately last year, will remain in office and has been taking steps in recent days to curb the power of the incoming Hamas legislature.
Olmert said "all contacts" with the Palestinians will be reviewed once Hamas joins the government.
"We will not negotiate and we will not deal with a Palestinian Authority that will be dominated wholly or partly by a terrorist organization," he said.
"On the day that the chairman of the Palestinian Authority ... will appoint a Cabinet from the Hamas to lead the Palestinian government, we will review all our contacts with the Palestinian Authority," he said.
Olmert repeated Israel's demands that Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept interim peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians.
Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide attacks and remains committed to Israel's destruction, has so far rejected the Israeli demands.
After meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Mubarak believes once it takes power, Hamas will gradually moderate its positions.
Mofaz warned that Israel could not accept a situation in which "Hamas, as a terror organization, takes over the (Palestinian) Authority and transforms the Palestinian entity into a terrorist entity that is situated side-by-side with Israel."
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