FM: If Iran sanctions fail, all options on table

[Chris]

FM: If Iran sanctions fail, all options on table
By HERB KEINON 02/09/2012 21:09
Lieberman makes comments after Russia says Israel's hard-line approach on Iran could have "catastrophic consequences."
Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor By Reuters

Israel hopes recent sanctions taken against Iran will get Teheran to stop its nuclear development, but if it does not, Jerusalem "is keeping all options on the table," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told 15 ambassadors to the UN Thursday in New York. Lieberman's comments during a meeting in New York with the ambassadors, including eight whose countries are on the Security Council, came amid a steady drumbeat of bellicose comments coming from both Israel and Iran.

Among the ambassadors in the room was the UN envoy from Russia. On Wednesday, Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's security and disarmament department, told Interfax that Israel's hard-line approach on Iran could have "catastrophic consequences." AFP quoted Ulyanov as saying "the inventions” concerning the possible development of nuclear arms by Iran “are increasing the tension and could encourage moves towards a military solution with catastrophic consequences."

more.................FM: If Iran sanctions fail, all o... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

[mattfivefour]

When I read this report, I somewhat doubted Ulyanov's use of the word "inventions". I believed perhaps it was a mistranslation of another word. But it was not. He indeed used the word "inventions" after having first emphatically denied any truth to suggestions that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons. According to the news report I just read, "Mikhaïl Oulianov, un très haut gradé du ministère Russe, n’a pas hésité à marteler que toutes les polémiques concernant la conception d’une bombe atomique par Israël n’étaient que pures spéculations." In English it says, "Michael Ulyanov, a very senior member of the Russian Ministry, did not hesitate to make clear (marteler: 'to hammer') that all of the controversies concerning the idea of an (Iranian) atomic bomb by Israel are only pure speculations."

Russia is playing a very dangerous game here. They KNOW Iran is pursuing the bomb as their own members of the IAEA have backed the latest reports from that organization. But to their twisted view of things they believe that the course they are on will bear positive fruit for them in the future. Truly the hooks are in!

[AndyM]

I have a question, How will Israel know if the sanctions are working? I am sure Iran will not show a defeat, no?