Iran's nuclear ambitions need to be dealt
with by the international community and not by Israel alone, Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said in remarks published Monday, dpa
reported.
"Iran is a large world power, which poses a threat to the international
community. The one charged with handling the Iranian issue is, first and
foremost, the international community," he told the Yediot Ahronot daily
in an interview to mark the Jewish new year, which begins Monday evening.
He said comments by Israeli leaders and analysts about what was needed in order
to deter the perceived Iranian threat showed that Israel was "a country
that has lost a sense of proportion about itself."
"The assumption that if the United States, Russia, China, Britain and
Germany don't know how to deal with the Iranians, we Israelis will know, we
will do, we will act, is an example of loss of proportions," he said.
"I say, gentlemen, let's be more modest. We will do what we know how to do
and what we can do, and we will act within the boundaries of our realistic
abilities, meaning that we will act within the envelope of the international
system, while we are not the ones leading it, but someone else."
Israel regards Iran as is biggest existential threat, because of Tehran's nuclear ambitions coupled with comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the
Jewish state must be erased off the map.
...