Netanyahu praises EU for new Iran sanctions

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the European Union for adopting new sanctions against Iran.

Netanyahu, speaking Tuesday at the start of a meeting in Jerusalem with European Union member state ambassadors, called the sanctions “tough” and said Iran was “the greatest threat to peace in our time.”

“These sanctions are hitting the Iranian economy hard, (but) they haven’t yet rolled back the Iranian program. We'll know that they're achieving their goal when the centrifuges stop spinning and when the Iranian nuclear program is rolled back,” he said.

The European Union Foreign Affairs Council on Monday adopted new economic sanctions against Iran that hit its banking, shipping and industrial areas.

“The Council reiterates its serious and deepening concerns over Iran's nuclear program and the urgent need for Iran to comply with all its international obligations, including full implementation by Iran of UNSC and IAEA Board of Governors' Resolutions,” said a statement issued Monday by the foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries that referred to the United Nations Security Council and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. “The Council condemns the continuing production of enriched uranium and expansion of Iran's enrichment capacity, including at the Fordow site.”

The new sanctions come on top of an oil embargo imposed by the European Union earlier this year and new economic sanctions levied by the United States.