NETANYAHU: It was a lot further away 15 years ago when I started talking about it. It was a lot further away 10 years ago. It was a lot further away five years. It was a lot further away five months ago. They are getting there, and they are getting very, very close.

Now, could they use the talks to deceive and delay? You bet. That's what they have been up to. They have had talks to do this or to do that. But effectively, they continue to go through -- the only way you get a result if you got them to agree to freeze their enrichment, take out all the enriched uranium that they have enriched, take it out of Iran, the stuff that can make bombs. If they want to make medical isotopes, you can give them back -- uranium that can serve that purpose, a peaceful purpose. And they can dismantle this underground facility they have in a place called Qom, which is basically an underground nuclear bunker. They could do all of that. Then you would have an indication that the talks have actually produced something. But personally, I'm skeptical. I think they have bamboozled the west. And they think they can get away with it.

VAN SUSTEREN: That goes back to my first question. I don't see anything to indication that Ahmadinejad wants to did anything but give lots of trouble to Israel.

NETANYAHU: No. Not only to us.

VAN SUSTEREN: It's a big problem.

NETANYAHU: To you.

VAN SUSTEREN: It's a big problem. Weapons of mass destruction, a nuclear bomb is a big problem for all of us, not just Israel. So it seems -- I guess I am trying to figure out, how is it -- how is war not inevitable or military action not inevitable? And if the increased sanctions effective, we would have to other countries not cheating and violating those sanctions.

NETANYAHU: That's one of the problems, to get -- so far, we haven't gotten all the countries, buying uranium and some large companies haven't. Again, they haven't actually -- it's hurt their economy. But it has not stopped their program by one wit. And that's a fact. It hurts their economy, but it hasn't stopped the program.

VAN SUSTEREN: I think they even bragged about that in the last 24 hours that the sanctions aren't going to affect their nuclear program.

NETANYAHU: So far it hasn't. You know, I think that the only way that very strong sanctions would work if they were coupled with a clear military option that the Iranians believed would be applied to. That's the acid test. They believe that there is a credible military option if they actually froze the enrichment and stopped the program. That's the sure-fire test. We had that once in 2003, but we haven't had it since.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Coming up, a warning that the Mideast could turn into a nuclear tinderbox. And it is not just Israel that is in deep trouble if Iran gets a nuclear weapon. More from Prime Minister Netanyahu. That's next.

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VAN SUSTEREN: Here's Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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VAN SUSTEREN: Could your country do this military action alone? I suppose you saw the articles the last couple of weeks and there are leaks to the American press that it would be an extraordinary military challenge to go in and take these out. Can you do it?

NETANYAHU: You know, I never talk about that. Everybody else talks about it every day. How about every hour? I open the paper and there is a new assessment of what Israel can do and can't do and the operational timeline, all of that, in great detail. Well, you know, not from me. I don't talk about it. I will say that Israel has grave concerns. We don't have the capabilities of the United States, but we are a capable country.

VAN SUSTEREN: You spent a long time with President Obama in the Oval Office. What can you tell me about that conversation?

NETANYAHU: I thought it was a very good conversation because it was open, it was honest, between two leaders of two allies, great allies. I think, you know, I think that Israel's alliance with the United States is of profound importance to everyone in Israel.

And I think -- I think America's alliance with Israel is important to the United States because when you look at the Middle East, what do you have? You don't have that many reliable allies, solid democracy that is unabashedly pro-American, doesn't make any excuses for it, cuts across the entire population. You don't have people chanting "Death to America" in Israel. You don't have people saying we want to move away from America, on the contrary. That's an island of stability and reliability in the heart of the middle-east, which is a very unstable, unreliable region for the United States, and one fraught with great dangers.

These terrorists -- Iran has slaughtered and arranged the slaughter of hundreds, if not more, Americans. It's helped kill American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has tried to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. Its proxy Hezbollah killed 241 in Lebanon. God forbid that such -- such a regime would have atomic bombs? That would be a great threat to the United States, to American lives, to Israel, certainly, to America's allies, to the supply of oil. It would spark a mad nuclear arms race that could turn Israel into a nuclear tinderbox.

This is a fantastic threat to the peace of the world, to the security of my country -- certainly, but to the security of your country and to the peace to the world. I think it's something that must be stopped. I can't stress that.

And even though people don't see that, sometimes people don't see a danger coming at them until it materializes. Churchill called it the slumber of democracies. He said democracies tend to sleep and they are woken sort of at the last moment by the jarring gong of danger. Well, if I could start sounding the jarring gong of danger, not to disregard all the dangers that are fraught. We are trying to stop this danger from materializing, but also understanding the enormous consequences of not stopping it. This could be so -- it could be a different world, one that you regret that we allowed to happen. It has happened before.

VAN SUSTEREN: What about the United States? Senator McCain, suggesting that we should have military intervention or some assistance in Syria. Obviously, Syria's the gateway from Iran to Syria to Hezbollah. What's your view on that?

NETANYAHU: First of all, there is a slaughter going on in Syria, which is despicable. I mean, there is daily carnage. There are tanks, machine guns. I mean, it's terrible. There is mass slaughter there, and it's abominable.

I am not sure it makes sense for me as the prime minister of Israel to tell you what we should do or not do to stop this, certainly, what we should do, because I am not sure if by saying that I will be helping the very people we are trying to help. So I will just say that I think what is going on there is abominable.

Does Syria help Iran? Yes. Iran is propping up Assad right now. Its own people are there. It's proxy Hezbollah is there helping the slaughter. So obviously there is this connection. But if the Syrian regime changes and falls -- and it might -- and I won't get into saying more than that, that's not necessarily going to stop the centrifuges from spinning in Iran. In fact, it might not do interesting.

VAN SUSTEREN: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you, sir. Nice to see you, sir.

NETANYAHU: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)