Don’t pin hopes on the new president: Israel PM

Netanyahu gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters in Jerusalem yesterday.

Reuters/JerusalemIran’s election has exposed popular discontent with the Tehran government but is unlikely to bring about any change in Iranian nuclear policy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Reuters yesterday.Acknowledging that economic sanctions were clearly taking their toll on Iran, Netanyahu said the pressure needed to be maintained and urged Western allies not to pin their hopes on the newly elected Iranian president, Hassan Rohani.“He doesn’t count. He doesn’t call the shots,” Netanyahu said, adding that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made all the decisions regarding nuclear policy, which the West fears is geared towards developing an atomic bomb.“The Iranian election clearly reflects deep disaffection of the Iranian people with its regime, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the power to change Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” said the Israeli leader, who heads a centre-right coalition government.Iran’s nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005, Rohani said yesterday that Tehran would be more transparent about its nuclear activities in future.However, Netanyahu quoted a 2004 speech in which Rohani openly acknowledged developing Iran’s nuclear capabilities while all the while holding talks with Europeans.“They are using time. He himself admitted they were using time basically to continue Iran’s nuclear weapons programme,” said Netanyahu, sitting in his Jerusalem office, a large map of the Middle East and Iran pinned next to the main doorway.