Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday tried to tone down rhetoric against Iran and Syria, less than a week after President Mahmoud Ahamedinejad visited Syria and from a podium flanked by the Syrian president and the leader of Hizbullah thumbed his nose at the United States and Israel.
“There is a process of methodical armament and incitement by Iran. We are not looking for any conflagration with Syria. The talk about us preparing an attack against Syria is not grounded in reality. It is Iran which is trying to create that impression,” Netanyahu said at the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Referring to internal tensions in the country, Netanyahu said “the Iranians want freedom. Tens of thousands took to the streets and endangered their lives facing the regime in an impressive manner, but they do not have the power to bring the regime down.” Netanyahu added that he did not agree to the view, held mostly by the United States, that severe sanctions will bring the Iranian population to commit “civilian suicide” to protect the regime.
“The schedule of the [United Nations’] Security Council can take anything between weeks and months, it can be a considerable amount of time. Russia unofficially already understands the risks of a nuclear-armed Iran and it is not something they wish to see come to pass, but the question is – whether Russia will join sanctions.
Also present at the FADC, Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, Head of the research division at Military Intelligence said “Syria is supplying Hizbullah with military hardware it never dared pass on before.”
Baidatz said “Hizbullah is torn between its Jihadist identity and commitment to Iran and its interests in the internal Lebanese arena. Therefore, though keeping a low profile and uninterested in the conflict flaring up, the organization is seeking to carry out a terrorist attack in retaliation for the death of Imad Mughniyeh, especially against Israeli targets abroad, while building its strength in preparation for a clash with Israel, deploying throughout southern Lebanon, as well as the hinterland and amassing advanced armaments – long-range missiles, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, with the aid of Iran and Syria.”
“Iran continues to strengthen its ties with the radical axis,” Baidatz said, pointing to the recent trilateral meeting in Damascus between Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Baidatz said that the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, “Iran’s man in charge of supplying armaments to all regional terror organizations,” was also present in the meeting.
Referring to Teheran’s nuclear program, the MI officer said Iran “did not progress during 2009 as it planned, but still progressed beyond what we would wish it to.”
Iran has more than two tons of low enriched uranium, enriched to four percent, which is more than necessary to run a nuclear reactor geared for benign purposes. “[Iran] now began enriching to 20% in defiance of the international community – but it is known that enrichment for military purposes needs to go up to 90%.” He said Iran’s recent actions have “some very troubling aspects.”
He warned that hopes for a regime change for internal reasons should not be set high, because “the potential that something will happen between the population and the regime exists, but between the riots we have witnessed and the collapse of the ruling echelon there is a vast distance.”
Whoever expects to see the Iranian regime collapse will be very disappointed, he said and assessed that the gap between Western nations regarding future sanctions against Iran means that “the road to harsher sanctions is still far ahead.”
