Liberman: Ayatollah’s uranium enrichment statement ‘a sign of hysteria’

A statement about stepped-up uranium enrichment by Iran’s supreme leader was “a sign of the hysteria and panic in the Iranian leadership,” says Israel’s defense minister.

By: World Israel News Staff 

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said an announcement by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the Islamic Republic will increase its uranium enrichment is “a sign of the hysteria and panic in the Iranian leadership.”

Speaking at a conference of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Eilat on Tuesday, Liberman said that the new Iranian threat is “a response to [French car manufacturer] Peugeot’s announcement that it is suspending its activity in Tehran.”

Peugeot announced Monday that it will cease its activities in the Islamic Republic in August.

“When such a corporation announces that it is leaving Iran because of the sanctions, it’s a sort of signal to the entire business community, to all the investors, and this is not a marginal company. This company is one of the pillars of the European economy, so Iran is afraid that all European investors will leave its territory,” Liberman explained.

He added that Iran’s belligerence is “not an Israeli problem” solely, but a regional and global menace.

“We see Iranian subversion not only against the State of Israel. We see them in Yemen, in Bahrain, in the Gulf, in Lebanon, so it’s a regional threat…

“Whoever has been listening in the past few months, in the past six months, to the leaders of Saudi Arabia, to the foreign minister, I sound like a dove of peace compared to them,” he quipped.

“Even when you take a report about the situation of terror in the world, Iran appears there every year as the biggest sponsor of terror in the entire world,” the minister stated.