Zionists
remind Obama who it was who got
him elected
Israel warns Obama on Iran
JERUSALEM — Israel said Thursday US President-elect
Barack Obama's stated readiness to talk to Iran could be seen in the
Middle East as a sign of weakness in efforts to persuade Tehran to curb
its nuclear program.
"We live in a neighborhood in
which sometimes dialogue — in a situation where you have brought
sanctions, and you then shift to dialogue — is liable to be interpreted
as weakness," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said, asked on Israel
Radio about policy change toward Tehran in an Obama
administration.
Her remarks sounded the first
note of dissonance with Obama by a senior member of the Israeli
government since the Democrat's sweeping victory over Republican
candidate John McCain in the US presidential election Tuesday.
Asked if she supported any US dialogue
with Iran, Livni replied: "The answer is no."
Livni, leading the centrist Kadima
party into Israel's February 10 parliamentary election, also said "the
bottom line" was that the United States, under Obama, "is also not
willing to accept a nuclear Iran."
Israel retains onlynuclear arsenal in Middle East
Obama has said he would
harden sanctions on Iran but has also held out the possibility of
direct talks with US adversaries to resolve problems, including the
dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The West believes Iran's nuclear
enrichment program is aimed at building atomic weapons, an allegation
the Islamic Republic denies.
Israel, believed to have the Middle
East's only atomic arsenal, has said Iran's nuclear program is a threat
to its existence and that it was keeping all options on the table to
stop it.
