PM in Cyprus: sanctions on Iran not working

JPost -- Netanyahu says he hopes sanctions will work, but so far they haven't, calls Iran a regime "that breaks all the rules," says US and the rest of the world should be worried about Iranian pursuit of nukes.

NICOSIA - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tour of Iranian centrifuges halls Wednesday is an indication that the worlds sanctions against Iran are not working, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

Netanyahu’s comments came during a press conference in Nicosia with Cypriot President Demetris Christofias.

“If anybody needed a reminder that the sanctions have not stopped the nuclear program, it was the guided tour by the Iran’s president in the centrifuge hall yesterday," he said. “I hope they work, but so far they have not."

Netanyahu characterized Iran as a regime that “breaks all the rules." A regime that was formed through the taking of the US embassy in Tehran, Iran -- Netanyahu said -- has ever since continued to show no respect for international rules. The most recent example, he said, was attacking foreign diplomats and their wives.

“They send children into mine fields, they have suicide bombers, they send tens of thousands of rockets into our cites and towns," Netanyahu said. “Such a regime should obviously not have an atomic bomb, and I believe that the international community is becoming aware by the day of what it means for Iran” to have nuclear potential, he said.

Asked about whether the US should fear an Israeli attack on Iran, Netanyahu said that Israel, the US and the rest of the world should be concerned about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.