Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said now isn’t a good time to strike Iran and that quiet diplomacy may be effective, adding to domestic criticism of the way the government is handling the Iranian threat.
“There is enough time to try different avenues of pressure to change the balance of power with Iran without the need for a direct military confrontation with Iran and now is not the right time,” Olmert said at a conference hosted by The Jerusalem Post in New York late yesterday. His comments were published today in the English-language newspaper.
Olmert’s comments followed those of Yuval Diskin, former chief of Israel’s Shin-Bet internal security service, who said on April 27 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have exaggerated Israel’s ability to halt Iran’s nuclear program using military means. Israel’s Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said in an interview published on April 25 that he didn’t believe that Iran would build an atomic bomb.
Netanyahu has expressed skepticism that international sanctions will stop Iran from enriching uranium. He has warned that the Islamic Republic’s leaders want to build nuclear weapons and has said that Israel has taken no option off the table in dealing with Iran. President Barack Obama has said diplomacy must be given more time to work before any military options are exercised.
“I’m not certain that when we speak loudly it is more helpful than when we speak privately and quietly with the leadership of those countries,” Olmert said.
Iran says its nuclear program is to produce electricity and is only for peaceful purposes.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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