Israelis are concerned with the Iranian nuclear threat. Photo: Algemeiner.

JNS.org – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Israel as an opportunity to link the Iranian and North Korean nuclear threats.

Netanyahu told Abe that Israel and Japan “are two peace-loving democracies that face formidable threats from nearby rogue states.”

“Both Iran and North Korea are governed by ruthless and extreme dictatorships, states that seek to bully and intimidate their neighbors, and in our case, to actually eradicate us from the face of the earth,” Netanyahu said. “Iran and North Korea have aggressive military nuclear programs, and they are both developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, ballistic missiles.”

Netanyahu also compared the current nuclear negotiations between Iran and Western powers to nuclear talks with North Korea two decades ago, urging the international community “not to repeat the mistake of the negotiations with North Korea.”

“That agreement with Pyongyyang in 1994 was widely celebrated as a historic breakthrough for nonproliferation, but in the end, that deal failed to prevent the dangerous proliferation that threatens all of East Asia today,” he said. “Iran cannot be allowed to travel the road taken by North Korea.”