Netanyahu Sticks to Hardline Positions

Calls for tougher sanctions on Iran and continues push for West Bank settlements

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for new tougher sanctions against Iran and advanced a plan to expand a settlement deep in the West Bank, signaling plans to hold firm on sticking points with the Obama administration ahead of a presidential visit here next month.

Speaking at a conference of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, Mr. Netanyahu warned that Iran was rapidly moving toward manufacturing enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb by using centrifuges that reduced the time by one-third.

It was his sharpest alarm on Iran's nuclear program since predicting at the United Nations General Assembly that Tehran would cross a "red line" by mid-2013, a speech that highlighted differences with Washington over how urgent was the threat. "They haven't crossed that line, but what they're doing is to shorten the time that it will take them to cross that line,'' he said. "This has to be stopped.…How do you stop it? Well, you have to put greater pressure on them. You have to upgrade the sanctions."