SIGHTINGS


 
While U.S. Duels With Iraq,
Iran Builds Nuke ICBMs
Monday, November 17, 1997
Copyright 1997, The Associated Press
 
 
LONDON (AP) -- Iran is secretly building up a stock of nuclear and ballistic missiles that someday may be targeted at the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
 
``Iran is unseen, unperturbed and undisturbed ... building a formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles, actually inter-continental ballistic missiles'' that initially will reach the rest of the Middle East, Netanyahu said in a BBC interview Sunday.
 
``Stage two it would reach Britain and stage three, believe it or not, they actually plan to reach the eastern seaboard of the United States, Manhattan,'' Netanyahu told interviewer David Frost.
 
``Now this sounds fantastic, but Iran is, wants to be a world power with the world ideology of fundamentalist domination, seeing the West as its great enemy and it seeks to have the weapons to back up that ideology.''
 
``That is even more dangerous than Saddam (Hussein of Iraq) because there is a fanaticism, an ideological fanaticism attached to these, to the acquisition of these weapons,'' Netanyahu said.
 
He said Israel has tried to prevent Iran from acquiring the technology for such weapons, ``which is coming primarily from Russia.''
 
The Kremlin has insisted that Russia is not allowing such a technology transfer.
 
``I spoke to President (Boris) Yeltsin about this, President Clinton has taken important initiatives to prevent Russia from supplying this technology, so has (British) Prime Minister (Tony) Blair,'' Netanyahu said.
 
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill, aimed at Russia, that would punish foreign business interests believed to be helping Iran develop ballistic missiles. President Clinton has threatened to veto the bill.
 
The United States considers Iran a rogue state actively promoting terrorism and has tried to isolate it.
 
 
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press


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