By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday his country will continue its efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“I promise that just as we have led the work on three mandatory sanctions resolutions of the UN, the UK will continue to lead, with the United States and our European Union partners, in our determination to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons program,” Brown told the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
In the first address given by a British premier to the Knesset, Brown said Iran now faces “a clear choice to make: suspend its nuclear program and accept our offer of negotiations or face growing isolation and the collective response not of one nation but of many nations.”
Israel, the United States and some other countries accuse Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, but the Islamic republic denies the charge, insisting that its nuclear program is only for civil purposes.
Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany offered Iran financial and diplomatic incentives to halt its controversial nuclear activities at a Saturday meeting in Geneva, and gave Iran two weeks to respond.
If Iran did not accept the incentives, the next step would be to ratchet up sanctions against Tehran, possibly including sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas industry, Israeli daily Ha’aretz quoted British government officials traveling with Brown as saying.
Speaking prior to Brown, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also stressed that Israel could not reconcile with a nuclear Iran, branding Iran not only a menace to Israel but a “global threat.”
Their remarks surrounding Iranian nuclear program came amid swirling speculations that Israel is planning an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that Israel will not hesitate to attack if its key interests are threatened.
Earlier in his speech, Brown said his country has an “unbreakable” friendship with the Jewish state, and slammed IranianPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of Israel’s right to exist,calling it “totally abhorrent.”
Brown’s speech at the Knesset marked the end of his two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territory, his first to the region since assuming office in June 2007.
Brown arrived in Israel late Saturday after visiting Iraq. His first stop in Israel was Yad Vashem, the country’s official Holocaust memorial and he attended a ceremony for the Jewish victims of Nazi Germany.
Later on Sunday, he traveled to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and pledged to deliver political and economic support to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).