Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Twitter

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has offered a ringing endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right to speak frankly about the threat posed by Iran.

Speaking to an audience at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, Giuliani said that any meaningful deal over Iran’s nuclear program would mean that Tehran should have “virtually no possibility of maintaining any nuclear arsenal.”

“I therefore deeply admire Prime Minister Netanyahu for speaking out on this issue, but he honestly has no choice,” Giuliani declared.  “If someone threatens to kill you, you simply don’t give them the gun to do it, unless there’s something wrong with you.”

Netanyahu praised Giuliani for his leadership in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist atrocities, adding: “Your visit comes at a particularly critical time because we are growing ever closer to the P5+1 agreement, an agreement which would directly endanger the State and people of Israel by leaving in the hands of Iran the ability to develop nuclear bombs…My responsibility is to do everything possible in order to prevent such an agreement.”

Earlier, Giuliani told Israeli broadcaster Channel 1 that he didn’t understand why the invitation extended to Netanyahu to address Congress in February had “become such a fuss.”

“Right now Congress is holding hearings on Iran, so this would be the perfect time to ask him  to speak,” Giuliani said. Pressed on whether the speech would give an unfair advantage to Netanyahu ahead of the Israeli elections, Giuliani said the timing had been determined by Congress. “This is more [Senator John] McCain and [House Speaker John] Boehner’s schedule than his [Netanyahu’s] schedule,” Giuliani said.