Israel Warns Against Nuclear-Armed Iran as Deadline for Deal Approaches
by JNS.org
JNS.org – With the Nov. 24 deadline for a final nuclear deal between Iran and world powers approaching, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that a nuclear-armed Iran “is a threat to the entire world.”
“This threat is grave to all of us, far more than the threat of the Islamic State group. Today, we are facing the danger of an agreement that would leave Iran as a nuclear threshold state, with thousands of centrifuges with which it could produce material for a nuclear bomb within a short period of time,” Netanyahu said at an event honoring former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, according to Israel Hayom.
According to a report by Israel’s Channel 2 report, the U.S. is willing to accept an agreement with Iran that would permit the Islamic Republic to retain 5,000 centrifuges.
In a New York Times op-ed published Sunday, Israeli Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz wrote that Iran “has softened its inflammatory anti-Western rhetoric and shown some flexibility on less important issues, but we must not be duped by these gestures.”
“President [Barack] Obama must stand by his declaration that no deal with Iran is better than a bad deal,” wrote Steinitz.