Israel minister calls for harsher Iran sanctions

Tokyo, Jan 18: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni today urged the international community to impose harsher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, but stopped short of calling for military action.

Speaking in Tokyo, where she was visiting Japanese officials, she also brushed off suggestions that a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's role in the privatisation of a bank might affect Israel's ability to deal with problems in the region.

''We believe to begin with that there is a need for stronger sanctions and that the sanctions the international community adopted were a soft touch,'' Livni said when asked about possible military action against Iran.

Most experts agree that the UN sanctions approved in December, banning trade in nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology, are too weak to force Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.

Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and aimed at securing energy supplies, but other countries suspect it is trying to make nuclear weapons.

''Right now Israel supports any kind of initiative that the international community promotes in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,'' Livni said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be ''wiped off the map''. That sparked fears that Israel, assumed to have West Asia only nuclear weapons, could launch pre-emptive strikes if it deems diplomacy has reached a dead end.

Livni called for a sense of urgency in dealing with Iran.

''Iran is playing for time,'' she said. ''But time is working against the world, because the crucial moment is not the moment in which they have the bomb. We are talking about the day in which they will master the technology, and this is much closer,'' she added.

Livni, who is also Israel's justice minister, said she believed the country's law enforcement authorities would deal correctly with a probe into possible wrongdoing by Olmert in the privatisation of Israel's second-largest bank in 2005, when he was finance minister.

Israel's state comptroller had been looking into whether Olmert promoted the interests of two businessmen, described in media reports as close friends, in the state sale of Bank Leumi.

Olmert has denied any wrongdoing.

''I have full belief in the law enforcement and justice system in Israel to make an independent inquiry,'' Livni said. ''Meanwhile the Israeli government is going to meet challenges in the best way.''

REUTERS

Related Stories