Gabi Ashkenazi said on Tuesday that Iran was the main threat to world peace and all options should remain on the table for stopping their nuclear program.
The Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff spoke at a dinner hosted by the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces in New York City, while hundreds of protestors marched outside.
Ashkenazi described how Iran was "attempting to harvest regional instability through its proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations."
"Therefore the international community must stop the Iranian nuclear program for its own sake, while all options should remain on the table," Ashkenazi said.
The dinner was held at New York's Waldorf Hotel, where protesters organized by 25 groups - including peace and justice organizations, churches, Jewish groups, Palestinian solidarity groups and women's groups - stoop outside holding signs that read: "Israel War Criminals Feast at the Waldorf," "U.S. Dollars Out of Israel," and "Obama, End Your Silence."
In November, an Israeli official said Ashkenazi told a parliamentary panel that Israel was readying all options to try to force Iran to halt its nuclear program and had suggested diplomatic or economic sanctions may also help.
During a visit to Israel on Tuesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the United States was working with many countries to convince Tehran through diplomacy that it should not acquire nuclear weapons.
But world powers are mindful of Israel's threats to attack its enemy pre-emptively as a last resort.
Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has called for sanctions to cripple Iran's trade in oil and gas. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for power generation, denying accusations that it is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.
Source: Haaretz.com
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