BERLIN  - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said international pressure on Iran aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions is “inadequate”, in comments published in a German newspaper Wednesday. Netanyahu told the Bild daily that although sanctions affected Iran and its economy, they did not halt its nuclear programme. “That is because the demands that accompany the sanctions are inadequate. You apply this whole set of pressures - for what? For practically nothing!” he said in the second part of a wide-ranging interview with the mass circulation newspaper. “Iran could stop the 20-percent enrichment at any moment now and not in any way retard their advance in the nuclear programme. “The P5 + 1 (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France plus Germany) is so keen on getting any agreement that they have lowered the demands,” he added. He said Iran should be given three clear demands.
“One, stop all enrichment, high and low. Second, remove all material that has been enriched from Iran. Third, dismantle the underground nuclear bunker in Qom,” he said.
World powers have held two rounds of talks with Iran aimed at convincing the Islamic republic to roll back its nuclear programme, which Israel and much of the West believes is a front for developing atomic weapons.
So far, the negotiations have not produced any tangible results although a third round is due to take place in Moscow later this month.
Israel, which sees a nuclear Iran as an existential threat, has refused to rule out a pre-emptive military strike on its nuclear facilities.
Tehran denies its intentions are anything but peaceful.