Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered his official reaction to the deal signed between Iran and world powers over Tehran’s nuclear program.
“The world is a much more dangerous place today than it was yesterday,” Netanyahu said, speaking at the start of an emergency security cabinet meeting he convened following news of the deal, which was officially announced Tuesday morning.
World powers have “gambled that in 10 years time Iran’s terrorist regime will change – while removing any initiative for it to do so! In fact the deal gives Iran every incentive not to change,” he lamented.
Netanyahu fired that the deal will fuel “Iran’s sponsorship of terror and attempts to destroy Israel,” citing as proof statements to that effect made by Iranian officials and allies including Hezbollah.
“This deal repeats the mistakes made with North Korea,” he intoned. “There, too, we were assured that inspections and verifications would prevent a rogue regime from developing nuclear weapons. And we all know how that ended. The bottom line of this very bad deal is exactly what Iran’s President Rouhani said today: the international community is removing the sanctions, and Iran is keeping its nuclear program.”
“The deal will give an unreformed, unrepentant and far richer terrorist regime the capacity to produce many nuclear bombs – in fact, an entire nuclear arsenal, with the means to deliver it.
“What a stunning historic mistake.”
“Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran, because Iran continues to seek our destruction,” he warned.
“We will always defend ourselves.”
Earlier Tuesday, at a press conference in Jerusalem with visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, Netanyahu decried the deal as a “bitter mistake of historic proportions.”
“In every area where it was supposed to prevent Iran attaining nuclear arms capability, there were huge compromises,” he added. “I will refer later to the details of the agreement, but before that, I would like to say here and now – when you are willing to make an agreement at any cost, this is the result.”
“From the initial reports we can already conclude that this agreement is an historic mistake for the world,” he later added, during a meeting with Netherlands Foreign Minister Bert Koenders.
“Far-reaching concessions have been made in all areas that were supposed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capability. In addition, Iran will receive hundreds of billions of dollars with which it can fuel its terror machine and its expansion and aggression throughout theMiddle East and across the globe.”
“One cannot prevent an agreement when the negotiators are willing to make more and more concessions to those who, even during the talks, keep chanting: ‘Death to America,” he continued. “We knew very well that the desire to sign an agreement was stronger than anything, and therefore we did not commit to preventing an agreement.”
“We did commit to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and this commitment still stands,” he concluded. “I say to all the leaders in Israel, it is time to put petty politics aside and unite behind this most fateful issue to the future and security of the State of Israel.”
Other prominent Israeli ministers similarly slammed the deal as a “historic capitulation.”
Just a day earlier on Monday, the prime minister declared that Israel will block Iran’s path to the nuclear bomb regardless of the deal, saying, “our commitment is to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons.”
