RAMALLAH: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday threatened that the United Kingdom is prepared to impose new sanctions that will isolate Iran if Tehran does not abandon its nuclear program and cease threatening Israel.
Brown, the first British prime minister to address the Israeli Knesset (parliament), opened his statements in Hebrew by congratulating Israel on its 60th anniversary. He pledged that the UK and its European partners are prepared to tighten the sanctions imposed on Tehran should it choose to ignore calls to suspend its pursuit of nuclear arms.
“To those who question Israel’s very right to exist, and threaten the lives of your citizens through terror, we say: The people of Israel have a right to live here, to live freely and to live in security,” said Brown. “And to those who believe that threatening statements fall upon indifferent ears, we say in one voice: It is totally abhorrent for the president of Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world.”
“Our country will continue to lead, with the United States and our European partners, in our determination to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons program. We stand ready to lead in taking further sanctions and will ask the whole international community to join us,” he said, adding that Iran “has a clear choice to make: Suspend its nuclear weapons program and accept our offer of negotiations or face growing isolation and the collective response, not just of one nation, but of all nations aground the world.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who took the podium before Brown, said in his speech that the citizens of Israel “have not forgotten that it was the British government that was the first to recognize the right of the Jewish people to a home in its historic homeland.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the United Arab Emirates yesterday after warning Iran of “punitive measures” if it does not respond seriously in two weeks to an international offer to freeze sensitive nuclear work. Rice sought to tighten the screws on Tehran after taking the unprecedented step of sending a top US diplomat to meet Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili at international talks in Geneva.
The United States had until Saturday refused to sit with Iran on nuclear talks until it stopped enriching uranium, but changed course to show it was going the extra mile for a diplomatic solution. The meeting sent a “very strong message to the Iranians that they can’t go and stall ... and that they have to make a decision,” Rice told reporters on her way to Abu Dhabi.
