(CNN) Erin Burnett - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview Tuesday: "Since the advent of the nuclear age after Hiroshima all nuclear powers have been very careful with the use or, more accurately, the nonuse of nuclear weapons. When it comes to militant Islamic regimes, I wouldn't be too sure. Because unlike, say, the Soviets, they can put their ideology before their survival, so I don't think you can bet on their rationality. Iran has given its terror proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hizbullah in Lebanon the most advanced lethal weapons." "They've been helping them to murder diplomats worldwide and to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. Think of what they could do with nuclear weapons. And I don't think you want to bet the peace in the Middle East and the security of the world on Iran's rational behavior. I think it is a much safer bet to do what I and President Obama and others have said, prevent Iran from acquiring atomic bombs." "I think it would be a big mistake to rescind the sanctions or lighten the sanctions. I think there has to be a cascade of sanctions and so far, that's the acid test, the sanctions haven't worked. How do we know that? Because nothing has been stopped....Iran has one goal, to stall, delay, run out the clock. That's basically what they are doing." "We want to make sure that if we have a peace arrangement [with the Palestinians] and we walk away from certain areas, that they won't be used...by Iran and its Palestinian proxies to fire rockets on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. But we don't want to run their lives. I don't want to govern the Palestinians. I don't want them as subjects of Israel or as citizens of Israel. I want them to have their own independent state, but a demilitarized state."
2012-04-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive