Alongside O’Brien, Netanyahu says ‘business as usual with Iran’ will be mistake

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it would be a mistake “to go back to business as usual with Iran,” signaling Israeli resistance to an expected push by US President-elect Joe Biden to revive the international nuclear deal with Iran.

Netanyahu speaks at a press conference with Robert O’Brien, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.

But his comments appear to be aimed at Biden, who has said the US will rejoin the nuclear deal if Iran agrees to strict adherence. The deal, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, has unraveled since Trump withdrew from it in 2018.

“Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran is still a nasty neighborhood bully,” Netanyahu says. “But, if unchecked, tomorrow Iran will arm itself with nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can target Europe and America and it will become a global bully, which will endanger everyone.”

“As long as Iran continues to subjugate and threaten its neighbors, as long as Iran continues calling for Israel’s destruction, as long as Iran continues to bankroll, equip and train terrorist organizations throughout the region and the world, and as long as Iran persists in its dangerous quest for nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, we shouldn’t go back to business as usual with Iran,” he says. “We should all unite to prevent this major threat to world peace.”

Netanyahu led an unsuccessful fight against the deal when it was negotiated by then-President Barack Obama in 2015 and welcomed Trump’s withdrawal three years later. Netanyahu says the deal will not prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and fails to address other belligerent Iranian behavior, such as its support for proxies across the region and its development of a long-range missile program.

O’Brien says the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Iran has been successful and says the string of agreements between Israel and Arab countries will cement what he calls “the legacies of peacemakers” Trump and Netanyahu.

— with AP