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Israel Now Actively Seeking To Join NATO
In an effort to establish more effective deterrence in the face of Iran's race to obtain nuclear weapons, government ministries are, for the first time, working on drafting a position paper that will include guidelines and a strategy for turning Israel into a full-fledged member of NATO, The Jerusalem Post has learned.The paper is being drafted by an interministerial committee made up of representatives from the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry and headed by the National Security Council. The committee plans to complete the paper by the end of February and present it to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for approval. Meanwhile Monday, in an exclusive interview, former Spanish prime minister Jos Mar a Aznar told the Post that "Israel needs to join NATO as soon as possible." According to Aznar, the Iranian threat serves as "an excellent occasion to enforce [Israeli] deterrence by making Israel a member of NATO." The former Spanish leader and current president of the FAES Spanish think tank said that if Israel became a member of NATO, "the perception in Iran would change, knowing that it's not only Israel [they are dealing with], but all of NATO." Aznar said that NATO needed to change its focus to counter the growing threat of global terrorism. "The threat today is terror and we need to restructure NATO to deal with this threat," he said. Aznar said he believed diplomatic efforts and sanctions - at the current level like those passed last month - would not succeed in getting Iran to suspend its nuclear ambitions. Later, speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Aznar said: "We must do everything we can to prevent a nuclear Iran, but we must also prepare to seek a possibility to make a nuclear Iran act appropriately."
Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-01-23 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=178520 |