Netanyahu: Any Final Iran Deal Must Include Recognition Of Israel’s Right To Exist

Any final deal with Iran must include a clear and unam­bigu­ous recog­ni­tion by Tehran of Israel’s right to exist, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday.
Netanyahu’s com­ments came after a meet­ing of the secu­ri­ty cab­i­net called to dis­cuss the frame­work agree­ment agreed upon Thursday between the world pow­ers and Iran in Lausanne. This was the first time he has called for an explic­it recog­ni­tion of Israel by Iran.
Netanyahu said that Israel would not accept an agree­ment that “allows a coun­try that vows to anni­hi­late us to devel­op nuclear weapons, peri­od.” In recent days senior Israeli offi­cials have spo­ken open­ly about pos­si­ble Israeli mil­i­tary action if need be to pre­vent Iran from get­ting a bomb.

“Iran is a régime that open­ly calls for Israel’s destruc­tion and open­ly and active­ly works towards that end.” he said. “Just two days ago, in the midst of the nego­ti­a­tions in Lausanne, the com­man­der of the Basij secu­ri­ty forces in Iran said this: The destruc­tion of Israel is non-nego­tiable.’ Well, I want to make clear to all. The sur­vival of Israel is non-nego­tiable. Netanyahu, while not threat­en­ing mil­i­tary action, said that the secu­ri­ty cab­i­net is “unit­ed in strong­ly oppos­ing the pro­posed deal.” He said it would pose a grave dan­ger to the region, the world, and threat­en Israel’s sur­vival. Netanyahu said the deal “would not shut down a sin­gle nuclear facil­i­ty in Iran, would not destroy a sin­gle cen­trifuge in Iran and will not stop R&D on Iran’s advanced cen­trifuges. On the con­trary. The deal would legit­imize Iran’s ille­gal nuclear pro­gram. It would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infra­struc­ture. A vast nuclear infra­struc­ture remains in place.” Furthermore, he said the deal would lift sanc­tions almost imme­di­ate­ly, giv­ing Iran a huge eco­nom­ic boost just as it is step­ping up its ter­ror and aggres­sion in the region and elsewhere.

“In a few years, the deal would remove the restric­tions on Iran’s nuclear pro­gram, enabling Iran to have a mas­sive enrich­ment capac­i­ty that it could use to pro­duce many nuclear bombs with­in a mat­ter of months,” he added. Echoing com­ments he made to Congress last month and repeat­ing what he said to US President Barack Obama dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion overnight, Netanyahu said this deal does not block Iran’s path to a bomb, but rather paves it. In addi­tion, he said, it may spark a nuclear arms race through­out the Middle East and increase the risks of “ter­ri­ble war.” Rejecting argu­ments made by Obama that the alter­na­tive to the deal is war, Obama said there is anoth­er alter­na­tive: “stand­ing firm, increas­ing the pres­sure on Iran until a good deal is achieved.”