Netanyahu condemns world powers over Iran

Haaretz - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he was disappointed that the six world powers engaged in nuclear talks with Iran had lowered their demands from Tehran.

"After a few rounds of talks - I am sorry to say that the demands from Iran are not enough," Netanyahu said during a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies."I hoped the P5+1 will demand that Iran halt all enrichment - but instead they are lowering their demands from Iran."

Netanyahu criticized the P5+1 - Russia, China, France, Britain, the United States and Germany - that in the last round of talks in Baghdad, they did not even demand that Iran halt all enrichment but only demanded enrichment to 20 percent.

"Not only do we need to tighten the sanctions on Iran, we also need to toughen the demands from Iran and see their implementation," Netanyahu stressed. "Iran might temporarily halt enrichment to 20% but the test will be to see if they agree to halt all enrichment."

Senior Israeli officials said Monday that gaps exist between the U.S. and Israel over Iran's nuclear program.

The Iranians arrived at the Baghdad talks to gain time,” said the Israeli official. “We are saying this with prior knowledge, not only from estimations.”

“The Iranians have given nothing up to this point and have not yielded over a thing, but they have gained eight weeks to continue their nuclear program. We believed that Iran would be willing to make sacrifices over the issue of enrichment to the level of 20% in order to save its nuclear program, but even they are not even willing to do that.”

On Friday, an American negotiation team arrived in Israel following two days of intensive talks in Baghdad. According to an American official, the U.S. government does not feel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to pressure it over negotiations with Iran.