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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: December 5, 2005 |
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Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks published Monday that he would support a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear program.
The comments, published in the Maariv daily, threatened to escalate recent tensions between Israel and Iran. Israel has repeatedly identified Iran as its biggest threat and dismissed Tehran's claim that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Netanyahu, who is running for leader of the hardline Likud Party, said Israel should follow the example of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin. During Begin's term, the Israeli air force in 1981 destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor.
"I will continue the tradition established by Menachem Begin, who did not allow Iraq to develop such a nuclear threat against Israel, and by a daring and courageous act gave us two decades of tranquility," Netanyahu told Maariv. "I believe that this is what Israel has to do."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said the world must not acquiesce to a nuclear Iran, but has said diplomacy remains the first line of defense. Sharon has not said what should be done if diplomacy fails. |
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