JERUSALEM: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned in comments published yesterday that Israel would strike Iran before it was able to develop nuclear weapons.
“I honestly don’t believe (a nuclear weapon) will give any immunity to Iran,” Kouchner said in an interview conducted in English with the Haaretz newspaper during a two-day visit to the region.
“First, because you (Israel) will hit them before. And this is the danger. Israel has always said it will not wait for the bomb to be ready. I think that (the Iranians) know. Everyone knows.”
Kouchner told Haaretz he hoped tough diplomacy and sanctions would persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, which Israel and many Western countries believe is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
“Iran with an atomic bomb is unacceptable at all... Talking, talking, talking, and offering dialogue, sanctions, sanctions, sanctions. Is the alternative to bomb first — I think not.”
Iran has always insisted its atomic drive is entirely peaceful. Israel is widely regarded as the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but it has never confirmed or denied having an arsenal.
Kouchner also said that he hopes political uncertainty in Israel and the US won’t hurt Mideast peace efforts. Kouchner is in the region for talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials. He met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli leaders in Jerusalem yesterday.
During his talks, Kouchner was told of “real progress” in peacemaking.
But he said he fears that everyone is waiting for the Israeli and US political situations to clear up. The US presidential election is less than a month away, and Olmert is preparing to step down as Israeli prime minister.
Olmert’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was recently elected leader of the ruling Kadima party and is trying to form a new government. If she fails, the country will hold a new election early next year.
Livni warned yesterday that time is running out for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, with extremists gaining strength as negotiations stumble. In her first foreign policy speech since her appointment to form a new Israeli government, Livni said Israel must press ahead with peace talks because “doing nothing has its own price.”
Israel and the Palestinians resumed talks last November at an international conference hosted by President Bush. They set a target date of January 2009, when Bush leaves office, for completing a peace deal, but little apparent progress has been made, and both sides cast severe doubt about meeting the target.
Livni, who heads the Israeli negotiating team, warned there are dangers in letting the process drag on indefinitely. “An understanding of what is under way in the region shows that time is not working in favor” of Israel and regional moderates, she said, indicating the growing strength of the Hamas, who overran the Gaza Strip last year and is challenging moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
Livni was speaking at a strategy conference in Jerusalem. Livni said peace talks with the Palestinians must continue regardless of the leadership changeovers in the US and Israel.
She emphasized that the goal is a full peace treaty, breaking from Olmert, who despaired of completing an accord by the target date and hoped for a declaration of principles or status report instead.
