Iran vs. Israel

[Nightwatch]

Netanyahu: Strike on Iran's nuclear facilities possible within months

An attack on Iran could take place within a matter of months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a series of television interviews on Thursday.

"We're not standing with a stopwatch in hand," he said. "It's not a matter of days or weeks, but also not of years. The result must be removal of the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran's hands."

Netanyahu gave separate interviews to all three Israeli television stations, the first he has given since his return from Washington earlier this week. The full interviews will air on Saturday night, but excerpts were broadcast Thursday.

"I hope there won't be a war at all, and that the pressure on Iran will succeed," the prime minister stressed, noting that his preferred choice would be for Iran to halt its nuclear program and dismantle the uranium enrichment facility located in an underground site near Qom. "That would make me happiest," he said. "I think every citizen of Israel would be happy."

"Making decisions isn't the problem; it's making the right decision," Netanyahu added. "If you don't make the decision and don't succeed in preventing this [an Iranian nuke], to whom will you explain this - to the historians? To the generations before you, and the generations that won't come after you?"

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Das müsste das erste Mal sein, das Netanyahu einen konkreten Zeitrahmen verkündet hat. Deckt sicht zwar mit früheren Äußerungen, aber so konkret war er noch nie. 2013, spätestens 2014 wird man handeln.