Netanyahu incites UN Congress on Iran nuclear deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on US Congressmen to resist the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in order to “get a better deal” Al-Quds newspaper reported on Sunday.

Speaking to American news network ABC, Netanyahu addressed US lawmakers, urging them not to “approve this bad deal… Resist in order to get a better deal.” Netanyahu is giving numerous interviews with American TV stations with the aim of inciting Americans against the deal.

The US State Department sent the deal to Congress on Sunday. Lawmakers will have 60 days to review it and vote either for or against. US President Barack Obama has pledged to veto any potential Congress disapproval, meaning that only a two-thirds majority can prevent the deal going ahead.

Until a decision is made by Congress, Obama cannot ease the sanctions imposed on Tehran, part of the pledge agreed in the JCPOA.

The JCPOA, Netanyahu believes, does not prevent Iran from owning a nuclear bomb, but rather delays the possibility of the Iranians acquiring one. He believes that the deal, which lifts economic sanctions on Iran, would give Iran the chance to receive billions of dollars of funding and support that would enable it to produce the bomb (although this would be in direct violation of the deal and would cause the sanctions to immediately snap back in place).

Netanyahu says that he is obliged to speak frankly to mass media about the dangers facing the region and the world and that Israel would never feel safe if this deal was put in place.

Speaking to ABC, he said: “There was much talk about compensating Israel… If this deal is supposed to make Israel and our Arab neighbours safer, why should we be compensated with anything?”

He also added: “How can you compensate a country, my country, against a terrorist regime that is sworn to our destruction and is going to get a path to nuclear bombs and billions of dollars to boot for its terror activities against us?”

US Secretary of State John Kerry has defended the deal, telling CNN that if the US withdrawn from the JCPOA, they would never be allowed access to inspect Iranian nuclear plants. “The greatest fear regarding this region is that when there is no deal in this regard,” he said.

Ironically, despite Netanyahu’s protestations regarding Iran’s alleged (and as yet un-proved) moves towards nuclear armament, Israel itself is one of only a handful of countries who have refused to sign up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and has an estimated 200 operational nuclear warheads. Israel also refuses inspection from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).