World can't ask Israel to wait on nuclear Iran: Netanyahu

The international community cannot ask Israel to keep waiting before acting against Iran if it has not laid down red lines to Tehran over its nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

“The world tells Israel: Wait, there’s still time. And I say: wait for what? Wait until when?,” said the Israeli premier.

“Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran, don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel,” he said in English at a joint meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov.

“Now if Iran knows that there is no red line. If Iran knows that there is no deadline, what will it do? Exactly what it’s doing. It’s continuing, without any interference, towards obtaining nuclear weapons capability and from there, nuclear bombs,” he said.

Netanyahu’s use of the word “deadline”, at a news conference with visiting Bulgarian government leaders, appeared to be a swipe at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton said earlier this week that the United States would not set deadlines in any further diplomacy with Iran, drawing an angry response from a senior Israeli government official on Monday.

Netanyahu has said Israel and the United States were in talks on setting a “clear red line” for Iran’s nuclear program. But the two allies remain at odds over whether to spell out a clear threshold for military action.

Israel and the West believe Iran is working toward nuclear weapon development capability.

Israel, widely thought to be the Middle East’s only atomic power, says a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence. Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful energy purposes only.