Israel calls for sanctions against Iran

WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- Israel says Washington and the international community should consider "crippling sanctions" against Iran's possible nuclear weapons development.

Speaking Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said a possible Iranian nuclear weapons program is the "biggest issue facing our times."

White House officials say they hope sanctions against Iran will be passed before the end of April. China has agreed in principle to join the four other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to support the sanctions.

Netanyahu says he wants the sanctions to be effective but questions whether those planned will be tough enough. He said the international community could bring harder ones if they chose.

"If you stop Iran from importing petroleum, that's a fancy word for gasoline, then Iran simply doesn't have refining capacity and this regime comes to a halt. I think that's crippling sanctions," Netanyahu said.

The prime minister said he would rather the United States and international community halt Iran's progress in possibly making nuclear weapons, but Israel reserves the right to protect itself.

"We're in the eve of Israel's Independence Day. And the fortunes of the Jewish people were such that we could never defend ourselves until we reestablish the Jewish state. We paid a horrible price in the Holocaust and before the Holocaust. And of course the changes that there is a Jewish state now that always reserves the right to defend the Jewish nation," Netanyahu said.