Israel Won't Bomb Iran Says Lieberman

[Vickie]

1. Lieberman: 'Israel Won't Bomb Iran'by Hana Levi Julian Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ended a three-day trip to Russia Wednesday by assuring the world that Israel does not intend to bomb Iran.The foreign minister made the statement following meetings in Moscow with President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials."We do not intend to bomb Iran, and nobody will solve their problems with our hands," Lieberman told journalists. "We don’t need that. Israel is a strong country; we can protect ourselves," Lieberman told reporters. "This is not an Israeli problem. "But the world should understand that the Iran's entrance into the nuclear club would prompt a whole arms race, a crazy race of unconventional weaponry across the Mideast that is a threat to the entire world order, a challenge to the whole international community. So we do not want a global problem to be solved with our hands."According to a statement by Israel's Foreign Ministry, Lieberman and his hosts agreed to continue promoting economic ties between the two states and cooperation in the realms of space technology and hi-tech, cultural cooperation, and the international law for the protection of investments. Ministers Liberman and Lavrov also signed a Protocol on Consultation between the two foreign ministries for 2010.Lieberman focused in particular on the issue of Russian arms supplies to the Islamic Republic during his talks in Moscow – a delicate point that occupied the attention of the previous Olmert government as well as the current Netanyahu coalition.Of equal concern to Moscow is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's insistence on placing the Iranian nuclear threat at the top of his international agenda. Both Russia and the U.S. have been worried that Jerusalem might decide to "go it alone" and eliminate a perceived existential threat from Tehran through military action.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that despite his government's support in building a nuclear reactor for the Iranians at Bushehr, Russia would "assure the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program." Lavrov told the RIA Novosti news agency his government would demand that Iran commit itself to limiting its nuclear development program to peaceful civilian purposes only. However, he did not explain how Moscow would enforce that mandate.Israel, as well as the U.S. and other Western nations are convinced that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often referred to the Jewish State as a "malignant growth" that must "vanish from the pages of history." Comment on this story