Netanyahu: Military Threat Only Way to Stop Iran

Israeli sources say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday that a credible threat of military action is the only way to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons.

Mr. Netanyahu was quoted as saying that international sanctions have hurt Iran but not enough to make the Islamist state rethink its nuclear program.

The Israeli prime minister met with Mr. Biden in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The West believes that Iran aims to use its uranium enrichment program to build atomic weapons. Tehran has denied the accusations.

President Barack Obama’s administration has so far stressed sanctions and diplomacy as its preferred course in dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr. Netanyahu is on a five-day visit to the United States. On Monday he will address the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, which is being held in New Orleans.

Later on Monday, he flies to New York to confer with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Israeli officials say the prime minister is to present a plan for the withdrawal from the northern sector of a disputed village that straddles the international border where Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet.

Israel captured the village of Ghajar from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Then in 2000 after Israel’s withdrawal, U.N. surveyors placed the northern part of the village in Lebanon, leaving Israel in control of the southern half. Israel reoccupied the northern sector of Ghajar in the 2006 conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas.

When the fighting ended, Israel pledged to pull out of the northern sector but gave no timetable.

Before leaving the United States on Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu will hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has told reporters she is working very hard to get the Middle East peace process back on track.

The Israeli leader will not be meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama who is currently out of the country on an Asian tour.

Some information in this story was provided by AFP and Reuters.