Israel PM argues for end of nuclear deal

JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister on Sunday stepped up his calls for world powers to end the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as U.S. President Donald Trump decides whether to withdraw from the agreement next week.

In a briefing to foreign reporters, Benjamin Netanyahu said the world would be better off without any deal than with what he called the “fatally flawed” agreement reached in 2015.

Netanyahu said Israel is sharing confiscated Iranian nuclear documents with the six powers that signed the deal, as well as other countries, in hopes of mounting further opposition to the deal. He heads to Moscow this week for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, where talks will focus on the Iranian nuclear program and Iran’s involvement in neighbouring Syria.

“I said it from the start, it has to be either fully fixed or fully nixed,” he said. “But if you do nothing to this deal ... you will end up with Iran with a nuclear arsenal in a very short time.”

Netanyahu was a vocal opponent of the deal when it was reached during the Obama administration. The agreement lifted painful economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Netanyahu has repeatedly argued that the deal will not prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons capability after its restrictions expire in the next decade or so. Trump has voiced similar objections and hinted he will withdraw from the deal unless it is renegotiated.

Netanyahu did not accuse Iran of violating the deal. Instead, he said the deal, reached by the Obama administration, was so weak that Iran has no need to break it. He said the flaws include permission for Iran to continue some low-level enrichment of uranium and its continued development of long-range missiles capable of delivering a bomb. He said the nuclear documents unveiled by Israel last week prove that Iran also pursued the knowhow on how to develop and detonate a bomb.

“I say that a deal that enables Iran to keep and hide all its nuclear weapons know-how, is a horrible deal,” he said.

Trump’s criticism of the deal has given Netanyahu a rare chance to reopen negotiations that appeared to have concluded in 2015. So far, Europe, China and Russia have shown no interest in revisiting the topic.