Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday
warned that a nuclear-armed
Iran
would control the major Gulf oil producers, send energy prices soaring and
"choke" the global economy.
"Everyone needs to understand that if we're worried today about rising oil
prices we shall be far more worried if Iran, heaven forbid, gains control over
the energy centers in the Persian Gulf," he told a conference on
environmentally-friendly economic growth.
"
Iran
would be able to dictate far higher oil prices and, by so doing, choke
the world economy," he said in remarks broadcast on Israeli public radio.
"Anyone who is interested in stopping the manipulative use of oil
production, its influence on world markets, the threats to the world's
economies, must also for that reason enlist to stop Iran's nuclear race."
Israel
and much of the international community fear
Iran
's
nuclear program masks a bid for weapons, a charge
Tehran
denies.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Friday that
Iran
had tripled its capacity to enrich uranium to 20% purity since November. The UN
nuclear watchdog said
Iran
was now producing around 14 kilos of uranium per month, with around 105 kilos
already stockpiled.
Enriching uranium to 20% is a major step towards purifying it to the 90$ level
needed for a nuclear weapon, although
Iran
denies intending to do so, saying its atomic activities are entirely peaceful.
Israel
, the sole if undeclared nuclear power in the
Middle East
, says all options are
open to stop
Tehran
's ambitions, but it is under intense pressure from
Washington
and
Europe
not to launch a pre-emptive military strike.
Netanyahu said the issue will be top of the agenda when he meets U.S. President
Barack Obama for talks in the White House on Monday.