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WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday made an empathetic appeal to Americans by comparing Iran’s potential to create a nuclear weapon to the Oklahoma City bomber.
“It’s like Timothy McVeigh walking into a shop in Oklahoma City and saying, ‘I’d like to tend my garden. I’d like to buy some fertilizer.’ ‘How much do you want?’ ‘Oh, I don’t know, 20,000 pounds,’ ” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Come on. We know that they’re working towards a weapon. It’s not something that we surmise. We have absolutely certainty about that. And they’re advancing towards that nuclear program,” he blasted. “We always reserve the right to act.”
Netanyahu, who also appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” tried to strike a nonpartisan tone when asked about President Obama’s handling of Iran.
“I’m not going to be drawn into the American election. What’s guiding my statements is not the American political calendar but the Iranian nuclear calendar,” he said.
But he forcefully called for the US to join Israel in setting a limit — which he repeatedly called a “red line” — on Iran’s nuclear progression.
“They’re six months away from being about 90 percent of having the enriched uranium for an atom bomb. I think that you have to place that red line before them now, before it’s — it’s too late,” Netanyahu said on “Meet the Press.”
“President Obama has said that he’s determined to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and I appreciate that, and I respect that. I think implicit in that is that if you’re determined to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, it means you’ll act before they get nuclear weapons.
“I just think that it’s important to communicate to Iran that there is a line that they won’t cross,” he said. “I think it’s important for anyone who is the president of the United States to be in that position of preventing Iran from having this nuclear weapons — nuclear weapons capability.”
Netanyahu likened the situation to the Cuban missile crisis faced by President John F. Kennedy. “It actually pushed back the world from conflict and maybe purchased decades of peace,” he said. “As Iran gets closer and closer to the completion of its nuclear program, I think it’s important to place a red line before them.”
Despite Netanyahu’s comments, the Obama administration stood its ground yesterday — saying it intends to deal with any current Iranian threat with sanctions.
“They are not there yet, in our assessment,” Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the UN, said of Iran’s nuclear weapon capability on “Meet the Press.” “There is time and space for the pressure we are mounting . . . The pressure is crippling. Iran is more isolated than ever.”
But Netanyahu is not convinced.
“They’re in the red zone,” Netanyahu said of Iran. “They are in the last 20 yards and you can’t let them cross that goal line, to make a touchdown. That would have unbelievable consequences.”
Netanyahu cautioned the U.S. about relying on intelligence from inside Iran, saying he is not willing to bet his country’s future on it.
“You just marked 9/11, that wasn’t seen,” Netanyahu said.
“None of us, neither Israel or the United States, saw Iran building this massive nuclear bunker under a mountain for two years, they proceeded without our knowledge.”