Strong statement by Bibi Netanyahu. This is most likely a political move to prepare the international community for an Israeli strike on Iran. We’re inching closer and closer now. Israel knows that the international community most likely will ignore this demand, it does however show that Israel is trying to exhaust all other options before it acts alone in stopping or delaying Iran getting nukes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Monday for an immediate embargo on Iran’s energy sector, saying the United Nations Security Council should be sidestepped if it cannot agree on the move.
Iran’s uranium enrichment, in defiance of several rounds of Security Council sanctions, has spurred world powers to consider tougher diplomatic measures, against the backdrop of threatened military action by Israel as a last resort.
Netanyahu told foreign Jewish leaders that if the world “is serious about stopping Iran, then what it needs to do is not watered-down sanctions, moderate sanctions … but effective, biting sanctions that curtail the import and export of oil into Iran.”
“This is what is required now. It may not do the job, but nothing else will, and at least we will have known that it was tried. And if this cannot pass in the Security Council, then it should be done outside the Security Council, but immediately.”
Many Western diplomats believe that China, along with fellow veto-wielder Russia, would oppose sanctions targeting Iran’s energy sector. Proposed sanctions for now focus on Iranian government assets like the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, says its uranium enrichment is for peaceful energy needs. But the fierce anti-Israel rhetoric from Tehran and threats of Israeli military action have stirred fears of a regional war.
Netanyahu made no reference in his speech to the possibility that Israel would try to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
