Israeli Minister Threatens Iran with 'Other' Steps

Expatica:

Israel would have to prepare "other solutions" in view of Iran's nuclear programme and rely less on negotiations, Israeli media quoted Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz as saying Friday. His remarks followed comments by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denying the Holocaust and saying Israel should be transferred to German and Austrian territory.

The combination of extreme animosity and nuclear capacities threatened Israel and the western world, Mofaz added.

Speaking to Israel Radio earlier Friday, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom harshly condemned Ahmadinejad's remarks saying: "I think that today more than ever we can understand that it wasn't a slip of the tongue," adding, "his remark, which adds to a previous statement, in my opinion truly demonstrates a way of thinking which is very dangerous." READ MORE

Shalom called on Europe and the international community to do more to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capability, saying world and European leaders were acting "decisively", but "not enough" was being done.

He said Europe was beginning to understand that Iran was not only Israel's problem, because Tehran was developing long-range missiles that could hit "all the capitals of Europe".

Less than two months after he said Israel should be "wiped off the map", Ahmadinejad told a news conference in Mecca Thursday that "some of the European states claim that Adolf Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews and condemn or even jail anyone whoever finds proof that doubts this."

He then added that "we don't accept this claim", but if European states believe it to be true, they should offer some of their provinces so that the Zionists could establish their state there.

Ahmadinejad's statements were widely condemned by European leaders as "unacceptable". United States State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called them "appalling" and "out of touch with values that the rest of us in the international community live by".

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged U.N. members to combat Holocaust denial and to "educate their nations about the well- established historical facts of the Holocaust, in which one third of the Jewish people were murdered along with countless members of other minorities".