Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said the possible U.S. nuclear deal with Iran is worse than the original deal that former President Barack Obama agreed upon seven years ago, in 2015.
“The terrible deal with Iran…casts a heavy shadow on our security and our future,” said Netanyahu to media members in Tel Aviv, as the Times of Israel, reported. “The deal enables Iran to get everything and give nothing…The current deal is worse than the previous deal.”
World powers, including Iran, expressed cautious optimism Monday regarding the prospect of potentially reaching a new nuclear deal, according to the European Union.
In 2018, former President Donald Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The agreement was meant to curb Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions.
The current leader of the opposition, Netanyahu, was prime minister when he campaigned to stop the United Kingdom, China, Russia, Germany, France, and the United States from making the JCPOA deal with Iran. At the time, he even expressed his stance before a session of Congress.
In his recent media statement, he advocated for a path that integrates a credible military threat with the implementation of crushing sanctions. “Deals don’t stop the nuclear plan,” he said. “The combination of grinding sanctions and a rich, realistic, credible military threat are the only things that stop [a nuclear weapons program].”
The opposition leader said the new deal would provide Iran with “hundreds of billions of dollars” to fund “terror and Iranian aggression in the region,” with up to $1 trillion by the final year of the deal in 2031.
Netanyahu: Deal would allow Iran to develop an “advanced centrifuge network”
Netanyahu added that the deal would ultimately allow Iran to deploy an “advanced centrifuge network,” dramatically increasing its uranium enrichment capabilities. Enriched uranium comprises the fissile material needed to cause a nuclear reaction.
According to the Times of Israel report, Netanyahu emphasized that “The P5+1 [U.N.’s Security Council’s five permanent members] are basically saying you can continue to advance towards being a nuclear threshold state and you are immune from attack.”
The former prime minister appealed for unity against the threat from Iran, although he criticized Israel’s current government for failing to pressure Washington to halt the deal.
“A nuclear weapon doesn’t differentiate between left and right, between Jews and Arabs, between secular and religious. It threatens all of us,” he said.
Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid urged Western powers, including President Joe Biden, to call off the impending nuclear deal with Iran, saying an agreement would reward Israel’s enemies and that negotiators are allowing Tehran to manipulate the talks.
