While the Iranian president denies his country is racing toward a nuclear weapon, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasized the danger of Iran obtaining nuclear capability.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani criticized the world’s nuclear powers on Wednesday, saying that atomic weapons have not kept them safe. Not for the first time, he claimed that his country had no interest in building a nuclear bomb.
In what AFP categorized as an “unusually fiery speech,” Rouhani attacked “criminal” Israel directly for its alleged nuclear arsenal.
“They tell us, ‘we don’t want Iran to make atomic bombs,’ you who have made atomic bombs,” AFP quotes Rouhani as saying in Isfahan.
“Have you managed to bring about security for yourselves with atomic bombs? Have you managed to create security for the usurper Israel?” Rouhani asked.
“We don’t need an atomic bomb. We have a great, self-sacrificing and unified nation. Despite pressures and sanctions, this nation sent a new satellite into space,” he declared, referring to Monday’s launch of the Iranian Fajr satellite into space.
Iran repeatedly denied that it seeks atomic weapons, claiming it is developing its nuclear program for “peaceful” purposes.
According to AFP, Rouhani came under pressure in recent days over Iran’s negotiations with the P5+1 powers as Iranian members of parliament push to speed up the country’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Extremism Backed by Nuclear Weapons
In the meantime, the IDF remains on high alert on Israel’s northern border in the wake of the terror attack executed by Iranian-backed Hezbollah last week in which two soldiers were killed, as well as a Spanish UN peacekeeper who got caught in the exchange of fire that ensued.
PM Netanyahu and DM Moshe Ya’alon visit a military outpost on Mount Hermon overlooking the Syrian border.( Photo: Effi Sharir/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon visited the IDF Hermon Brigade base on Wednesday for an up-close look at the IDF’s preparedness. They were briefed by IDF Deputy Chief-of-Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan and GOC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and met with local council chairmen from the area.
Israel is facing “the new front, terror front, that Iran is seeking to establish here in the Golan Heights,” Netanyahu stated. This is in addition to the terror fronts Iran had already established in south Lebanon and 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,” Netanyahu warned.
“Israel will oppose this deal, which is dangerous to us, dangerous to the region, dangerous to the world,” he stated.
The Israeli leader conveyed his condolences to King Abdullah and the people of Jordan for “the grisly murder of the air force pilot of the Jordanian air force.”
“In the Islamic State of ISIS, they burn people alive; in the Islamic State of Tehran, they hang them from cranes in the public squares. Both are motivated by an extreme ideology of militant Islamic terrorism that has a cruelty that is unbounded,” said Netanyahu.
“But the greatest danger to the future and the security of the world is that this extremism will be backed up by nuclear weapons. This is something everyone must oppose,” Netanyahu stressed.
By Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel
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