Special report: Iran Nuclear
Crisis
Iran replies to six-nation
proposal
Iran launches military
exercise
WASHINGTON,
Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Sunday that
Iran is just "a few months" from being able to enrich uranium, a key step to
producing a nuclear bomb.
"The crucial moment is not the day of the bomb. The
crucial moment is the day in which Iran will master the enrichment, the
knowledge of enrichment," Livni said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Iranians "are trying to send a message that it's too
late" for the international community to stop their nuclear program, Livni said,
noting that the world "cannot afford" for Iran to have nuclear weapons.
"It's not only a threat to Israel," she said. "The
recent understanding, also, of moderate Arab states is that Iran is a threat to
the region."
Washington has been pushing for sanctions to force
Tehran to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used for both nuclear
power and atomic weapons.
The UN Security Council demands
that Iran suspend its nuclear activities by Aug. 31. In its Resolution 1696
adopted in July, the Security Council for the first time makes legally binding
demands on Iran and a threat of sanctions.
Iran refuses to suspend its uranium enrichment,
saying the work is only to make fuel for electricity generation.
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