International community has to thwart Iran, Berlusconi says

Feb 3, 2010, 11:26 GMT

Jerusalem - The international community had to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions and the solution lies in sanctions and negotiations, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told Israel's parliament Wednesday.

In a special address to a nearly-full chamber, he said that while goodwill gestures from the Iranians should not be rejected, 'it should be clearly stated that the dialogue efforts will not suffer intentional stalling and wasting of time.'

'The international community must make a a clear, unequivocal and unanimous decision that it will not accept nuclear weapons in the hands of a state whose leaders have stated their wish of destroying Israel and at the same time denied the Holocaust and de-legitimized the Jewish state,' he said.

Addressing the chamber in Italian, Berlusconi said Islamist terrorism was not directed solely at Israel and the United States, but against all Western democracies and all moderate Arab states.

He expressed the view that a United Nations report on last year's Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which accused Israel and the Islamist Hamas organization of committing war crimes, 'tried to incriminate Israel for its justified firing on Hamas rockets.'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke before Berlusconi, dwelt on his Italian guest's friendship for Israel, who had helped 'bring Israel closer to Europe.'

He ended his remarks by telling the story of a young Italian woman who, during World War II, saved a young Jewish girl from a German policeman in Italy.

'The woman's name was Rosa, and one of her sons is Silvio Berlusconi,' Netanyahu said, moving the Italian prime minister to tears.

Berlusconi arrived in Israel Monday, accompanied by seven ministers. He met with Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and President Shimon Peres, and on Wednesday the first-ever joint Israeli-Italian cabinet meeting took place in Jerusalem.

On Wednesday afternoon the Italian leader is set to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.