Iran Could Have Nukes by Spring, Says Netanyahu

ABC News(UNITED NATIONS) -- The world must immediately draw a clear "red line" to prevent Iran from completing a nuclear weapon as soon as next spring, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Thursday in an address before the United Nations.

"To be credible a red line must be drawn first and foremost in one vital part of their program, on Iran's efforts to enrich uranium," said Netanyahu, who considers a nuclear Iran a threat to his country.

The premier said it was already getting "very late" to stop Iran, a regime that he said backs terrorist organizations and attacks around the globe.

Using a magic marker to literally draw a red line on a diagram of a bomb, Netanyahu said Iran was already 70 percent of the way towards developing a bomb. He said the international community must stop Iran before it could complete another 20 percent, a process of creating medium enriched uranium.

The final 10 percent could be completed in a few short weeks, he said. Once the uranium enrichment was completed, he said, Iran could easily assemble the necessary fuse in a secret location no bigger than a classroom.

The international community, he said, knows where to find the enrichment centers, and Iran cannot be given enough time to assemble the bomb in secret.

Netanyahu linked the Iran regime to the radical Islamists behind Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the recent attacks on an American embassy in Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens.

"Some say a nuclear armed Iran would stabilize the Middle East. Yeah right. That's like a saying a nuclear armed Al Qaeda would usher in world peace," he said.

The prime minister lauded President Obama for targeting Iran's nuclear program in his own address before the U.N. on Tuesday. The two men have differed about where such a red line should be drawn. The U.S. has maintained that Iran should not build a nuclear weapon, and the Israelis want them to stop at enrichment.

Netanyahu compared the situation to Europe's unwillingness to confront Germany's Hitler in his early aggressive moves. "Those who opposed that fanaticism waited too long to act," he said.

After citing what he said were terror attacks linked to the Iranian regime, the Israeli prime minister said, "Given this record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons, just imagine Iran with nuclear weapons... Who would be safe anywhere?"

Obama was criticized for not meeting with Netanyahu this week, but it was revealed Thursday that the two leaders will speak on the phone following a meeting between the prime minister and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Netanyahu maintains that international diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions have failed to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu did not specifically mention a military strike on Iran, but for months he has hinted that Israel would take such action if other efforts failed to stop Iran.

On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the U.N., slamming the "continued threat by the uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation."

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