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The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has told a BBC television program that Israel would not be wise to attack Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.
The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has told a BBC television program that Israel would not be wise to attack Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.

Mr Hague told his interviewer that a diplomatic role should be given a chance to succeed.

Hague said as the Islamic republic had recently increased its willingness to negotiate, he did not believe Israel should contemplate launching a military attack on Iran.

He said: "I think Israel, like everybody else in the world, should be giving a real chance to the approach that we have adopted, of very serious economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and the readiness to negotiate with Iran And that's what we now have to make a success of."

Mr Hague stressed that while Britain was not engaged in any planning to attack Iran, he would not take "any options off the table."

However, he said the UK government's approach would remain "diplomatically and economically focused to bring Iran successfully to the negotiating table."

Speculation has been rising over Israel's suspected intentions of mounting a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Iran said last week it was ready to resume stalled talks on its nuclear drive.

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The trickle of senior executives leaving Goldman Sachs is turning into a flood.

The Wall Street powerhouse, which has witnessed a string of high-profile departures in recent months, is facing a hollowing out of its ranks not seen since the firm established its partnership pool 13 years ago.

The exodus comes as Goldman, along with the rest of Wall Street, turns to cost cutting as new regulations and lingering economic challenges eat into profits, as well as bonus pools.

Yesterday, Chaim Howard Wietschner, 44, became the latest partner to leave. An internal announcement revealed that the senior hedge fund honcho was set to bolt.

Named a partner in November 2002, Wietschner will follow more than 50 partners who have opted to “retire” over the past several months. Indeed, Wietschner’s departure is the third in the past two weeks.

Others out the door include a head of investment banking, Jeffrey Moslow, 47, and Donald Mullen, 53, the firm’s head of credit and mortgages.

Earlier in the year, trading co-heads David Heller, 44, and Edward Eisler, 42, also announced their plans to retire. One of the firm’s co-heads of investment management, Ed Forst, 50, resigned late last year.

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