Israeli PM: No nuclear deal without full halt to Iran’s enrichment capability

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will only agree to a nuclear deal with Iran that eliminates Tehran’s capacity to enrich uranium.

During the JNS International Policy Summit on April 27, Netanyahu said the only way to prevent the Islamic Republic from building a nuclear weapon is to dismantle “all the infrastructure of Iran’s nuclear program,” he said, adding, “That is the deal.”

Israel, he continued, “cannot live with anything short of that—anything short of that could bring you the opposite result, because Iran will say, all right, I won’t enrich, wait, run out the clock, wait for another president, do it again.” This, he said, was “unacceptable.”

According to the prime minister, “a bad deal is worse than no deal.”

“And the only good deal that works is a deal like the one that was made with Libya, that removed all the infrastructure,” he declared, echoing remarks he made during an April 7 meeting at the White House.

He emphasised that while it is “important” that Jerusalem and Washington share the same goals, “We have to make sure that Iran does not get nuclear weapons.”

In addition to eliminating Tehran’s ability to enrich uranium, the prevention of Iran’s development of ballistic missiles should also be addressed, he continued.

“I think these are the two requirements. I said to President Trump that I hope that this is what the negotiators will do,” he said. “But I said one way or the other, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”

Iran and the United States concluded a third round of indirect nuclear talks on Saturday in Muscat, Oman, with both sides citing “serious progress” but warning that significant disagreements remain.

By Khagan Isayev