Gaza, January 29: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are using Iran’s nuclear program to deflect attention from the regime’s heinous crimes in the Middle East, an Israeli daily writes.
Netanyahu, with Barak’s help, has turned the Iranian nuclear program into an “impressive ploy” to divert attention from settlement policy and the perpetuation of the occupation, wrote Ha’aretz in its Sunday editorial.
The Israeli Peace Now organization revealed in its January 2012 report that the expansion of illegal settlement buildings in the West Bank increased by 19 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year.
The Israeli regime has repeatedly been criticized by the international community for illegal settlement activities on the occupied Palestinian lands.
“He (Netanyahu) has taken advantage of President Barack Obama’s preoccupation with the US presidential elections and Obama’s fear of the Jewish right,” the editorial continued.
The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to push for the imposition of a series of UN and unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic. They have also used the allegations to threaten Tehran with a military attack.
Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.
—-Agencies