Iran could face new sanctions unless it freezes nuclear enrichment, British prime minister Gordon Brown has said in speech to the Knesset. "Iran now has a clear choice to make. It has to suspend its nuclear program and accept our offer of negotiations, or face growing isolation and the collective response not of one nation but of many nations," Brown told lawmakers in Jerusalem.
The comments added to the pressure on Iran to suspend enrichment efforts. During a trip to Persian Gulf states, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said that Iran could not continue to "stall". Over the weekend, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, after meeting in Geneva with Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, said that Iran needed to give a clear answer within two weeks to an offer of economic and diplomatic incentives proposed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Solana said the world powers had not got what they were looking for at Geneva meeting, which was also attended by the US undersecretary of state, William Burns.
"We expected to hear an answer from the Iranians, but as has been the case so many times with the Iranians, what came through was not serious. And so Javier Solana decided to say to them two weeks,'' Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
Welcoming Gordon Brown as the first British prime minister to address the Knesset, Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert said that Iran should be seen as a menace to the entire world. "The threat is not just against Israel. It is a global threat and it must be confronted by an international front that is united, determined and most importantly: immediate" Olmert said.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat
