In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that it was imperative that the world prevent Iran from building an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Netanyahu, who has been a harsh critic of the nuclear agreement President Obama forged with the Iranian government, reiterated his opposition to the deal on Friday, saying, “It shouldn’t have been signed.”
Netanyahu said it was unthinkable that the civilized world should allow an “Islamist terror state” to develop weapons of mass destruction.
“We cannot allow that to happen,” Netanyahu said. “If we are resolute in our policies, we can make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Netanyahu’s comments come at the end of an interesting week for the Trump administration in regards to the Iranian nuclear deal. The State Department kicked off the week with a missive to Congress that assured lawmakers that the Iranians were in full compliance with the deal. That was quickly followed by a statement by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said that the deal itself was not enough to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. And then on Wednesday, President Trump himself said that while Iran may be in compliance with the terms of the deal, they were not living up to “the spirit” of the agreement.
Trump has ordered a full review of the deal and Iran’s compliance therein, but Netanyahu said it hardly mattered whether or not the Islamic Republic violated the agreement. Even if it obeyed all the rules, he said, it would only be 12 years before it would be allowed to pursue the “unimpeded enrichment of uranium.”
In his press conference, President Trump said that Iran was only hurting themselves with their continuous provocations. “I think they are doing a tremendous disservice to an agreement that was signed and it was a terrible agreement. We are analyzing it very carefully and we’ll have something to say about it in the not too distant future.”
Iran has pushed back, saying they are in full compliance with the deal; they accuse Trump of casting doubt on the credibility of the agreement in an attempt to once again marginalize Iran from the rest of the world.
Perhaps. But Iran has brought this on themselves. This agreement was a disaster from day one, and AT BEST, it is only effective at keeping Iran from the bomb temporarily. In the meantime, it is enriching them and their terrorist clients. And every day that this deal goes unaltered, Israel’s security – and our own – dwindles.
