PM: Iran, not Israel, is making annihilation threats

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releases a video responding to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad, who accused Israel of threatening to destroy the Islamic Republic.

“Zarif is lying once again. It is Iran that is openly threatening annihilation. The heads of the regime threaten daily the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu says.

“Iran is trying to establish itself militarily in Syria, and today it has been reported that it is accelerating its nuclear program,” the premier adds.

“I repeat. We will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons that will endanger us and the entire world.”

For the first time since the signing of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the UN’s nuclear watchdog earlier today did not explicitly report that Iran was implementing its nuclear-related commitments.

“It is inappropriate for me to make the same statement of business as usual,” International Atomic Energy Agency director general Yukiya Amano said in a speech opening the agency’s quarterly board of governors meeting.

Amano noted the May 8 announcement by Iran that it no longer considered itself bound to keep to the limits of stocks of heavy water and enriched uranium that were agreed on as part of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

— with AFP