West ‘willfully blind’ to Iran terror, Ya’alon says

The West has made itself willfully blind to Iran’s terror machine and signed an agreement that will endanger world peace, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says at an army graduation ceremony.

“Iran, which for two decades and for the duration of the negotiations, cheated and swindled the international system… is now rewarded with a tail wind that endangers the world’s peace,” he says.

Ya’alon adds that the agreement signed in Vienna on Tuesday will intensify Iran’s terror activities “in a singularly tangible way.”

Calling Iran “a monster of terror,” he says that the West is “shutting its eyes” and that Iran-backed terrorism may yet “reach their door step.”

Looking ahead and perhaps speaking for some of the Sunni states in the region, Ya’alon adds that Israel will “continue to insist” that the agreement is “a historic mistake, which undermines and destabilizes the few stable foundations that remain in the Middle East.”

“We are,” he tells the graduating class of the Israel National Security College, “pursuers of peace. But we must recognize reality and not fall for fantasy.”

— ​Mitch Ginsburg​