DAVOS, Switzerland – Israeli election front-runner Benjamin Netanyahu told a session Thursday of the World Economic Forum that keeping nuclear weapons out of Iran's hands was more important than the economy because the financial meltdown is reversible — and a nuclear Iran wouldn't be.
"What is not reversible is the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a fanatic radical regime ... We have never had, since the dawn of the nuclear age, nuclear weapons in the hands of such a fanatical regime," he said.
Netanyahu is the conservative Likud party candidate in Feb. 10 elections.
Iran maintains that it is seeking nuclear power for peaceful purposes and not for a weapons program.
An Iranian official at the forum in Davos, Switzerland appeared to extend a hand to the the administration of Barack Obama as the gathering's discussion of the economic crisis broadened Thursday to include Iran, oil and what might be expected from the new leadership in Washington.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Tehran would take a "cooperative approach" with Washington as long as it saw changes that go beyond words.
"We do believe that if the new administration of the United States, as Mr. Obama says, is going to change its policies not in saying but practice, they will find in the region a cooperative approach and reaction," Mottaki said.
The new U.S. president has stressed the importance of engaging Iran, a country the Bush administration often singled out as the most dangerous in the Middle East. In his inaugural address, Obama addressed leaders of hostile nations by saying "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
Mottaki's remark came a day after Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for "profound changes" in U.S. foreign policy — including an end to support for Israel, an apology to Iran for past misdeeds, and withdrawal of U.S. troops stationed around the world.
Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett — the only key member of his team in attendance — was to hold a talk with forum founder Klaus Schwab later Thursday.
The elite annual gathering of 2,500 business and corporate leaders also heard a warning from OPEC that it was ready to make more production cuts if oil prices don't start rising soon. The cartel's Secretary-General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, speaking at the annual meeting of business and government leaders in Davos, Switzerland, expressed hope that global oil demand would pick up "by the end of this year or beginning of next year."
El-Badri said OPEC members will have reached the group's pledge of a drop of 4.2 million barrels a day by the end of January.
After that "if we still have some downward problems, then OPEC will not hesitate to take some quantity out of the market," he said.
Officials also discussed the recent fighting in Gaza, reactions to and hopes for Obama's leadership and how to tackle efforts to fight terrorism.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted that Obama, who is not in Davos, should help redefine terror and terrorism in the Middle East and use it as the basis for a new American policy there.
"I believe that President Obama must redefine terror and terrorist organizations in the Middle East and based on this new definition, a new American policy must be deployed in the Middle East," said Erdogan, whose country has played a key role in trying to mediate among Israel and Syria and the Palestinians.
The United Nations on Thursday launched an emergency appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza.
"Help is indeed needed urgently," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The meeting is taking place amid economic gloom that has seen personal fortunes trimmed, companies shuttered and hundreds of thousands jobs lost. The failure of the world's financial community and of regulators to detect and deflect the spiraling crisis has left many groping for answers — and questioning what went wrong on a moral, even spiritual level.
"We have trusted the invisible hand so much that we forgot to bring virtue to bear on our decisions so the invisible hand has let go of some important things, like the common good," said theologian Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners USA.
"The common good has not been very common in our decision-making about economics for a long time," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/davos_forum
Topic: Israeli candidate at Davos warns on Iran (Read 1130 times)