Senator Joe Lieberman today said that Iran “has failed the test” in rejecting the hand extended by the United States and the international community. Today, one can say that Iran completely failed the test, and the ball is in Teheran’s court, Senator Lieberman said at a joint press conference with a delegation of senators attending the Saban Forum parley in Yerushalayim.”My conclusion is that the open hand extended to Iran by the United States and the international community has been met with a closed fist,” the senator stated.
The senator went on to say that today, it is clearer than ever that the Iranian government will not halt its nuclear program unless it is aware that the regime is in danger.
Therefore, in 2010, we will have to adopt a different strategy, said Lieberman. We must not rule out continuing dialogue with Iran, but until they prove they are prepared for serious dialogue we must continue to pressure them. Firstly, by harsher sanctions, and in addition, by mulling other options together with the international community.
On the Palestinian Authority’s plan to ask the UN Security Council to endorse an independent Palestinian state without Israel’s consent, Lieberman expressed hope that Washington would veto such a unilateral move.
“None of us would support unilateral measures towards the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it wouldn’t lead to a resolution and it’s contrary to American foreign policy for several administrations,” he said. “The way to work out this conflict is by bilateral negotiations.”
“I hope and presume that the US would veto such an attempt if it ever came to the Security Council because we have been committed to negotiations and said that the only way to solve this conflict and bring about the end that we have all hoped and worked for, two states for two nations is through bilateral negotiations,” the US senator concluded.
{JPost/Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}
