Netanyahu says Iran hasn’t crossed nuclear “red line”

TEHRAN,May 1(MNA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Iran had not crossed the “red line” he set for its nuclear program, Reuters reported. At the United Nations in September, Netanyahu drew a red line across a cartoon bomb to illustrate the point at which he said Iran will have amassed enough uranium at 20 percent fissile purity to fuel one nuclear bomb if enriched further. He said then that Iran could reach that threshold by mid-2013. Last week, Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence, told a security conference in Tel Aviv that “the Iranians have crossed the red line” Netanyahu drew at the UN General Assembly. Without referring directly to Yadlin, Netanyahu said at a meeting on Monday of his Likud-Beitenu parliamentary faction that Iran's nuclear activities remained short of his benchmark. “Iran is continuing with its nuclear program. It has yet to cross the red line I presented at the United Nations, but it is approaching it systematically,” he said in broadcast remarks. “It must not be allowed to cross it.” As a signatory to the non-proliferation regime, the Islamic Republic has legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful energy and medical purposes. Israel is widely believed to possess the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, has issued veiled warnings for years that it might attack Iran if international sanctions and big power diplomacy fail to curb Iran’s nuclear program.