Olmert urges action to head off nuclear Iran

By Jeffrey Heller

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
said on Wednesday Iran’s nuclear ambitions posed “the test of
our time” and urged swift international action to meet what he
termed a threat to the existence of the Jewish state.

“A nuclear Iran means a terrorist state could achieve the
primary mission for which terrorists live and die: the mass
destruction of innocent human life,” Olmert said in a warmly
received address to both chambers of Congress.

“This challenge, which I believe is the test of our time,
is one the West cannot afford to fail,” he said, estimating
that Iran “stands on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons.”

Olmert, on his first U.S. visit since taking office after
Ariel Sharon’s incapacitating stroke in January, said Iran had
declared the United States its enemy and noted that its
president had called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

“For us, this is an existential threat. A threat to which
we cannot consent. But its not Israel’s threat alone. It is a
threat to all those committed to stability in the Middle East
and the well-being of the world at large,” he said.

“History will judge our generation by the actions we take
now … the international community will be measured not by its
intentions but by its results,” he said, cautioning that
“another dark and gathering storm” was casting its shadow over
the world.

Iran insists it wants only to produce energy for civilian
use, but Western powers argue it is using a civilian nuclear
program as a cover for producing the highly enriched uranium
needed for atomic bombs.

World powers met in London on Wednesday to discuss a
package of incentives and threats aimed at defusing the Iranian
crisis. It was unclear whether the talks would resolve serious
differences between Washington and Moscow over U.S. demands
Iran face sanctions.

BUSH PLEDGE

At White House talks with Olmert on Tuesday, President
George W. Bush pledged to come to Israel’s aid if it is
attacked, comments Israeli commentators said also represented a
subtle warning not to take military action against Iran.

Israel, the only nuclear power in the Middle East,
destroyed Iraq’s atomic reactor in an air strike in 1981.

Olmert, in a briefing to reporters, said he and Bush saw
eye-to-eye on the Iranian issue. Israel has said frequently it
would take a back seat to international efforts to press Iran
to halt uranium enrichment work.

In his speech to Congress, Olmert again offered to hold
talks with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,
saying: “I extend my hand in peace.”

But Olmert repeated he would put into motion his unilateral
plan to redraw the Jewish settlement map in the occupied West
Bank if Israel could not find a peace partner now that the
militant Hamas group was in charge of the Palestinian
government.

“The Palestinian Authority is ruled by Hamas, an
organization committed to vehement anti-Semitism, the
glorification of terror and the total destruction of Israel. As
long as these are their guiding principles, they can never be a
partner,” Olmert said.

Bush, at a news conference with Olmert on Tuesday,
described the prime minister’s go-it-alone proposals as “bold
ideas” in a surprise boost for the plan condemned by the
Palestinians a means of denying them a viable state.

Under the “realignment” blueprint, still on the drawing
board, Israel would remove isolated settlements in the West
Bank while bolstering major enclaves and setting a border by
2010 if peacemaking remains frozen.