Netanyahu warns against progress on Iran’s terms to nuclear deal
PM fears compromise with Tehran will allow it to become threshold nuclear power, says he’s ‘obligated’ to speak out
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday warned that reported progress on a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers was being made on Tehran’s terms, and repeated his call for the world to bar the country from becoming a nuclear threshold state.
He also indicated that he intended to go ahead with this speech on the issue to Congress next month, saying it was “my obligation as the prime minister of Israel to speak out against the danger of a nuclear agreement with Iran, and to do everything I can to prevent it.”
Netanyahu was responding to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who said earlier this week that the two sides “have narrowed the gaps” to reaching a deal, but that “some issues and differences remain.”
Two diplomats close to the talks said the sides were discussing a possible compromise that would let Iran keep much of its uranium-enriching technology but reduce its potential to make nuclear weapons.
“Iranian President Rouhani said that the talks with world powers are advancing on a path set by Iran,” the prime minister said. “This path brings Iran to be a threshold nuclear power with international consent, with all the economic easing [Tehran has] demanded.”
Speaking at a road dedication, Netanyahu called for world powers to keep sanctions in place against Iran. Were economic pressures lifted, he said, Tehran would be able to arm itself with “many nuclear bombs.”
“This is very dangerous for the state of Israel, dangerous for the region, and dangerous for world peace,” he said.
Iran offered last year to reduce the output of its centrifuges if it could keep most of them going. That was rejected at the time by the US and its five negotiating partners. But both sides are under increasing pressure ahead of two deadlines: to agree on main points by the end of March, and to reach a comprehensive deal by June 30.
The latest negotiations have been extended twice, strengthening skepticism from both hardliners in Iran and critics in US Congress.
Failure this time could result in a push for new sanctions by influential US legislators, a move that some Iranian officials warn would scuttle any future diplomatic attempts to end the standoff.
The talks increasingly have become a dialogue between Washington and Tehran. Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are also at the table but recognize that the US and Iran stand to gain — or lose — the most.
Iran now has withstood a decade of diplomatic and economic pressure aimed at reducing its program., as Washington demanded a year ago that Tehran reduce the number of operating centrifuges from nearly 10,000 to fewer than 2,000. That would increase the time it would need to make enough weapons-grade uranium from a few months to a year or more.
Hebrew media reports last weekend quoted officials in Jerusalem saying the ostensible looming deal would leave Iran with over 6,000 centrifuges in operation. US officials were later quoted as saying the assertion was erroneous.
