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Netanyahu: Immediate Sanctions on Iran, Even Without UN Approval

23 February 2010 04:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reiterated the importance of placing immediate sanctions on Iran and said, "We are at a point where the international community needs to decide if it has serious intentions to stop the Iranian nuclear program", APA reports quoting Al Jazeera.

In a speech before the Jewish Agency’s board of trustees in occupied Jerusalem, Netanyahu explained that "the biggest threat to humanity is the militant Islamic regime attaining nuclear weapons. These matters do not resolve themselves Ã¢Â€â€œ the international community must act promptly."The Iranian regime is dependant on energy, petroleum and natural gas. The first and most important sanction that must be placed is restricting exports of gas and imports of petroleum from Iran," Netanyahu added, "These sanctions must have teeth; soft and lenient sanctions won’t have the necessary affect. They should not be implemented only in order to check them off a list."

The prime minister noted that if the decision of placing such sanctions is not reached by the UN’s Security Council Ã¢Â€â€œ it must be implemented through other frameworks, but either way must happen immediately.

Barack Obama declared that his cabinet will finalize the sanctions in the upcoming weeks, but it is still not clear whether he will be able to transfer the decision to the Security Council, due to China’s hesitancy to place such sanctions and its veto power in the Security Council.