Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Cliff Owen/AP)
Prime Minister Netanyahu says Iran will be able to swiftly get nuclear weapons after the emerging deal expires, echoing similar remarks by US President Obama.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that “Israel shares the view” that when the deal expires “the breakout time for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon will be zero.” Breakout time refers to how long it takes to build a bomb if allowed to go ahead full speed.
“The deal with Iran was a dream deal for Iran but a nightmare deal for the world,” Netanyahu stated.
Although the American leader had insisted that he would not make a deal that challenges Israel’s security, he acknowledged on Tuesday that in the event of a final agreement, Iran’s breakout time “would have shrunk almost down to zero” soon after the expiration date.
“What is a more relevant fear would be that in Year 13, 14, 15, they have advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium fairly rapidly, and at that point, the breakout times would have shrunk almost down to zero,” Obama said.
The stark admission came as the president seeks to quiet a growing chorus questioning whether the deal he and world leaders have negotiated merely delays the certainty of a nuclear-armed Iran. Obama has insisted confidently that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon on his watch, which ends in roughly 20 months, but has made no similar assurances about his successors.
Nonetheless, he defended the deal, claiming that the world would have better insight into Iran’s capabilities because of extensive inspections in the earlier years.
The Iranians categorically stated that they would refuse spontaneous inspections of its nuclear facilities.
The joint statement issued in Lausanne, Switzerland last week announcing a preliminary deal “was nothing but a smokescreen meant to disguise difficult, ongoing disagreements between the parties,” Col. (ret.) Yigal Carmon, counter-terrorism expert and founder and president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), said in an interview with Israel Hayom. “The U.S. and Iran have, in fact, not reached any nuclear agreement.”
Framework Deal a ‘Cold-Blooded’ Decision
Rather than pretending that a nuclear deal with the Iranians was possible, “If I were in a position to offer Netanyahu advice, I would advise him not to fight the nonexistent deal but rather explain to Congress that there is no agreement,” Carmon told Israel Hayom.
Regarding the discrepancies in the versions of the agreement offered by the Obama administration and the Iranians, Carmon said that the US president was “surely not” fooling himself. He quoted unnamed administration officials, who said it was a “cold-blooded” decision.
According to Carmon, “The Americans explained to the Iranians before they parted ways that they would release something to Congress and the American public, and that it would express different narratives. But that they will try not to contradict each other. Later, Wendy Sherman was clearer in an interview to [American news channel] MSNBC. She said that the negotiating teams discussed the matter before they left Lausanne, and made it clear that there are two narratives, but promised not to contradict each other.
“If this is not a premeditated collusion to deceive Congress and public opinion — I don’t know what one would be,” Carmon asserted.
By AP and United with Israel