Iran must recognise Israel's right to exist, insists Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that his country will not accept any Iranian nuclear deal that does not include Tehran’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist, Anadolu has reported. “Israel will not accept an agreement that allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons, full stop,” he said.

Speaking after a Friday cabinet meeting, Netanyahu slammed a framework deal signed on Thursday between Iran and a number of world powers as a “threat to Israel and the world.”

The cabinet, he noted, is united in opposing the proposed deal. “This deal poses a grave danger to the region and to the world and threatens the very survival of the state of Israel,” he stressed, adding that the agreement would also lend international legitimacy to Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The deal will not shut down a single nuclear facility in Iran, will not destroy a single centrifuge in Iran, and will not stop research and development on Iran’s advanced centrifuges,” said the prime minister. “On the contrary, the deal will legitimise Iran’s illegal nuclear programme. It will leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure.”

He added that the deal will lead to the lifting of sanctions almost immediately “This at the very time that Iran is stepping up its aggression and terror in the region and beyond the region.”