Netanyahu fires salvo at UN over Iran’s nuclear program
Palestinian peace process takes back seat during Israeli leader’s address
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never admitted defeat easily.
At the UN Thursday, he took aim at Iran, as well as countries that welcomed a fiercely opposed international deal to ease sanctions against it in return for guarantees that its nuclear program would be peaceful.
The “coupling of militant Islam with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu warned the General Assembly, “will be the marriage certificate of that unholy union.”
Not only would the deal, resolutely backed by U.S. President Barack Obama, result in production of “enough fissile material for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons,” he said, but Iran is setting up “dozens of terror cells” that will be fuelled by mon- ey freed up by softened sanctions.
Netanyahu’s attack on Iran was the main focus of a speech that put the Palestinian peace process in second place.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took the UN spotlight earlier in the week by declaring he could no longer be bound by agreements made with Israel that would lead to a two-state solution because it had not lived up to its commitments.
Netanyahu responded that the speech was “deceitful,” and called for a return to the table. On Thursday, he said he remains “committed to the vision of two states,” pledging to “immediately resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever.” An offer Abbas will probably reject.
The Palestinians have argued that Netanyahu’s past opposition, and the continued growth of Jewish settlements that erode the territory of a future state, have made such declarations pointless.
A recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that about 65 per cent of Palestinians believe that a twostate solution was unworkable as settlements continue to expand.
In his UN speech, Netanyahu did not comment on the raising of the Palestinian flag for the first time at UN headquarters, marking its status as a non-member observer state.
At the ceremony Wednesday, Mogens Lykketoft, the Danish president of this year’s General Assembly, spoke of “urgent need for real improvements on the ground and a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — one that fulfils the vision of an independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine living in peace and security with Israel.”
Germany, which worked with other countries to reach the UN-endorsed deal last summer, said that it would make the world safer and open the door to greater international understanding.