Israeli officials heavily criticized the framework agreement between the P5+1 and Iran over its nuclear program. PHOTO: PM Netanyahu's Twitter.

Israeli officials have strongly criticized the framework nuclear agreement between the P5+1 and Iran, calling it a “bad framework agreement that will lead to a bad and dangerous deal,” hours after negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland made their announcement on Thursday.

Israel’s Channel 2 reported that Israeli officials remain unconvinced by President Obama’s guarantees that this “historic” deal “would cut off every path” to Iran developing the bomb. The Israelis view the agreement as a Western capitulation to Iranian dictates, and said, in the end, “it will not lead to a peaceful nuclear program, instead to a military nuclear program.”

Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s Minister of Strategic affairs, said that “the smiles in Lausanne,” and the optimism over the deal was “detached from the wretched reality in which Iran refuses to make any concession on the nuclear issue and continues to threaten Israel and all other countries in the Middle East.”

In response to President Obama’s assertion that the agreement would make the world a safer place, the officials in Jerusalem noted that if a final deal “is reached on the basis of this framework, it would be a historic mistake that would make the world much more dangerous.”

The Israeli officials voiced their fears that the framework agreement “gives international legitimacy to Iran’s nuclear program, the main goal of which is simply and only to produce a nuclear weapon.” They added that the framework would leave Iran, “with an extensive nuclear capability. It will continue to enrich uranium, it will continue to research and develop centrifuges, and it will not shut down even one of its nuclear facilities, particularly its underground facility at Fordow.”

Another worry troubling officials in Jerusalem, “is that this deal guarantees to Iran the complete removal of the anti-nuclear sanctions, as part of a guarantee that Iran will be allowed to preserve its nuclear capability.” They emphasized that the deal would not “require [Iran] to stop its aggression in the region, its terrorism worldwide, and its threats to destroy Israel, something they [the Iranians] repeatedly emphasized even in the last few days.”

Israeli officials emphasized that they were not seeking war against Iran, saying that the “alternative to this bad deal is not a war, but another deal that would significantly set back Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and demand that they end their aggression in this region, and against the world.” Steinitz noted that Israel would “continue our efforts to explain and persuade the world in hopes of preventing a bad [final] agreement.”

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Tweeted that, “Any deal must contain a guarantee of Iran returning to the situation it was in before they had nuclear development capabilities, and a situation where it ends its aggression and terrorism.”