In a special Rosh Hashanah interview with Israel Hayom, to be published in full on Sunday, Netanyahu addressed recent assessments by top defense officials, who suggested that there is still time before action against Iran becomes necessary. “I hear all those people who say that we should wait until the very last minute. But what if the U.S. doesn’t intervene? That is a question we have to ask,” he said.
Netanyahu also dismissed allegations that his insistence on red lines, beyond which the U.S. would commit to taking military action against Iran, was impacting the presidential race currently underway in the U.S., saying, “This is nonsense because the issue that is guiding me is not the U.S. elections, but the centrifuges in Iran, and what can I do if the centrifuges in Iran are inconsiderate of the U.S. political timetable? If the Iranians were to hit the ‘pause’ button and halt their uranium enrichment and bomb preparation until after the elections, I would be able to wait.” [Israel Hayom]
“It has nothing to do with the American elections. Because the Iranian nuclear program doesn’t care about the American political calendar.
“If the centrifuges stop miraculously, if they stop preparing enriched uranium to make atomic bombs, then I suppose I wouldn’t have to speak out. But the Iranian nuclear program proceeds unabated and they don’t care about the internal American political calendar. For me this is a policy issue, a security issue, and not a political issue.” [from Interview with the Jerusalem Post]
