Netanyahu urges West to drop emerging deal with Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the Golan Heights on Monday and called on the international community to abandon an emerging compromise with Iran over its nuclear program and pressure Tehran to scale back its presence along Israel’s northern border.

“I came here today with our defense minister to view the IDF preparations against the new front, terror front, that Iran is seeking to establish here in the Golan Heights,” Netanyahu said alongside Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon during a visit to the IDF Hermon Brigade base. “This is in addition to the terror fronts they’ve already established in south Lebanon and in Gaza.

“It’s curious to me that in the face of this terror activity of Iran, both here in the region and throughout the world, leading countries in the world are not demanding that Iran cease this activity, but are racing to forge a deal that would enable Iran to have nuclear weapons, and that is the greatest danger of all,” he added.

Netanyahu’s comments came as two diplomats close to talks between the US and Iran said the sides were discussing a compromise that would let Iran keep much of its uranium-enriching technology but reduce its potential to make nuclear weapons.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the proposal could leave running most of the nearly 10,000 centrifuges Iran is operating but reconfigure them to reduce the amount of enriched uranium they produce. Experts warn that any reduction in centrifuge efficiency is reversible more quickly than a straight decrease in the number of machines.

“Israel will oppose this deal, which is dangerous to us, dangerous to the region, dangerous to the world,” Netanyahu said.

The visit came after a helicopter strike last month, attributed to Israel, that hit a convoy near the village of Quneitra, on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Six Hezbollah operatives, including a top commander, and one Iranian general were confirmed killed in the strike, which was followed by threats of severe retaliation from Hezbollah and Tehran.

Last week two IDF soldiers were killed and seven injured in a retaliatory ambush by Hezbollah in the contested Mount Dov region inside the Israeli border with Lebanon. Yet, despite the deadly clashes, both Israel and Hezbollah have communicated via intermediaries that they are not interested in an escalation in the fighting.

“We came here to see the practical security implications,” Ya’alon said. “Iran is trying, not just now, but recently more so — to open a front against us on the Golan Heights. Iran is involved in building infrastructure, in offensive terror infrastructures, in carrying out sabotage activities on the Golan.

“That’s Iran, which reaches into Afghanistan and Iraq, to Syria and Lebanon, and recently into Yemen and other places. And in each place that it is involved, there is instability. There are those who are right now trying to arrive at some kind of a bad agreement on the nuclear matter, while ignoring those activities in which it seeks not only to attack Israeli; it also strives against the interests of the moderate Arab regimes in the region, and against Western interests.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.