Netanyahu slams Iran deal at UN
Glares at delegates for 45 silent seconds
In an impassioned speech interspersed with bouts of dramatic silence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned the Iran nuclear deal as empowering Tehran to spread further unrest in the Mideast while leaving the country capable of making an atomic bomb.
Netanyahu described Israeli-U.S. bickering over the deal as “a disagreement within the family,” downplaying the fallout over an agreement that Washington praises and Israel condemns.
The Israeli leader’s speech to world leaders at the UN General Assembly was notable for its rhetorical flourishes, including 45 seconds of silence about 15 minutes into his address.
Netanyahu insisted the nuclear agreement lets Iran support terrorism in the Mideast — and bolsters its plan to liquidate the Jewish state.
“Iran’s ruler promised to destroy my country, murder my people,” Netanyahu said. “And the response from this body, the response from nearly every one of the governments represented here has been absolutely nothing. Utter silence. Deafening silence.”
He then stopped speaking to emphasize his point, glowering at hushed delegates before finally resuming his speech.
Netanyahu kept attacking the accord, which has already gone into effect despite intense lobbying by Israel’s allies in Washington.
“This deal doesn’t make peace more likely,” he said. “By fuelling Iran’s aggressions with billions of dollars in sanctions relief, it makes war more likely.”
Iran denies any interest in nuclear weapons. It describes its atomic activities as peaceful, focused only on generating energy and advancing science and medicine. The Obama administration insists the deal is effective in crimping the activities Tehran could use in making an atomic bomb.
As he has for years, Netanyahu insisted that Israel would stop Iran from getting the bomb.
“Israel will not allow Iran to break in, to sneak in or to walk in to the nuclear weapons club,” he declared in an allusion to his country’s vow to strike at Iran militarily as a last resort.
Netanyahu listed what he said were disruptive actions by Iran even as the nuclear deal was being negotiated: shipping weapons and proxy fighters to Syria; arms to Yemen and to Hezbollah in Lebanon; sending top Iranian military officers to the divided Golan Heights region, and threatening to topple Jordan’s government.
Describing the greatest danger to the world as “the coupling of militant Islam with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said the Iran nuclear deal may well “prove to be the marriage certificate of that unholy union.”
“Do any of you really believe that a theocratic Iran with sharper claws and sharper fangs will be more likely to change its stripes?” he asked.
On Thursday, he urged his audience to “stand with Israel as we check the fanaticism at our door.”
“Keep Iran’s feet to the fire,” he said.
The Israeli prime minister also blamed lack of progress in talks with the Palestinians on President Mahmoud Abbas, saying that Israel was ready to return to negotiations any time.
The response from this body (has been) deafening silence