Polish PM: Iran's comments on Israel annuls right to place in int'l community

[i.beletesri]

Polish PM: Iran's comments on Israel annuls right to place in int'l community
By Barak Ravid
Ha'aretz

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stressed on Wednesday that Poland stands alongside Israel on the issue of the threat posed by Iran, maintaining that Poland "has no doubt that Iran's words toward Israel cancels its right to a place in the international community."

Tusk emphasized his country's alliance with Israel with regard to Iran, saying that "if there are exceptions in Europe with regard to the Iran issue, it is definitely not Poland," speaking at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem.

He maintained that Poland will "continue following this matter; the European Union must take a firmer stance on this issue than it has done."

This marks Tusk's first visit to Israel, and the first visit by a Polish leader in nearly a decade.

On Tuesday, Iranian state television quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying his country has begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

Iran already has about 3,000 centrifuges operating in Natanz, and the new announcement is seen as a show of defiance of international demands to halt a nuclear program the U.S. and its allies say is aimed at building nuclear weapons. It also brings Iran one step closer to developing a critical mass of uranium needed to build an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad has sparked international outcry by referring to the Holocaust as a "myth" and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map," among his verbal attacks on Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/973413.html