Netanyahu urged world powers to seek a "better deal" regarding Iran's nuclear program. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO.

JNS.org – Following an Iranian military official’s reported threat to destroy Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged world powers to seek a “better deal” in their nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran’s Basij militia, said “erasing Israel off the map” is “non-negotiable,” Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

“Yesterday an Iranian general brazenly declared and I quote: ‘Israel’s destruction is non-negotiable,’ but evidently giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable,” Netanyahu said. “This is unconscionable. I agree with those who have said that Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes doesn’t square with Iran’s insistence on keeping underground nuclear facilities, advanced centrifuges, and a heavy-water reactor. Nor does it square with Iran’s insistence on developing ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and its refusal to come clean with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on its past weaponization efforts.”

Netanyahu said that the international community, during the current nuclear talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne, should “insist on a better deal” with Iran.

“A better deal would significantly roll back Iran’s nuclear infrastructure,” he said. “A better deal would link the eventual lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to a change in Iran’s behavior. Iran must stop its aggression in the region, stop its terrorism throughout the world, and stop its threats to annihilate Israel. That should be non-negotiable and that’s the deal that the world powers must insist upon.”