“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.” (Isaiah 54:10)
This Monday, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, welcomed the decision between world powers and Iran to extend the nuclear talks until next summer.
Having reached the US-set deadline without arriving at an comprehensive deal, the Iran talks with the P5+1 (United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany) have been extended another seven months.
“I think that an important thing happened today. We have always said that no agreement is preferable to a bad agreement and the agreement that Iran signed is a very bad and dangerous agreement for Israel, for the region and in my opinion for the future of the entire world,” Netanyahu said.
“It is very important that this agreement has been prevented as of now, but a struggle is yet before us and we intend to continue this struggle in order to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threshold state that would endanger us and others.”
An Iranian soldier and missile
Netanyahu has repeatedly warned the West that the deal on the table was a bad deal and would enable Iran to secretly pursue its ambition to create nuclear weapons.
In an interview with the BBC, he explained, “The deal would have left Iran with the ability to enrich uranium for an atomic bomb while removing the sanctions…. The right deal that is needed is to dismantle Iran’s capacity to make atomic bombs and only then dismantle the sanctions.”
“The fact that there is no deal gives us the opportunity to continue the economic pressure that have proven to be the only thing that brought Iran to the table.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is interviewed by the BBC. (Photo: GPO, Haim Zach)
Netanyahu also told the BBC that there is no such thing as the right to enrich uranium and that Iran wants to enrich it so that it can become a military nuclear power.
“How do we know that? Because they are developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. What do you do with such missiles? The only reason you build ICBMs is to launch a nuclear warhead. So Iran—I think everybody understands—is unabashedly seeking to develop an atomic bomb,” he emphasized.
“You do not want to give this medievalist regime in Iran, that throws acid in the faces of women, that oppresses gays, that subjugates an entire population, that exports terrorism far and wide—don’t give these violent medievalists atomic bombs. That’s not a good thing for the future of the world and its security,” he said.
On Monday evening, during a joint press conference held in Vienna with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry said of the extension, “We have made real and substantial progress and we have seen new ideas surface.”
“Today we are closer to a deal that will make the whole world, especially our allies in Israel and the Gulf, safer. We would be fools to walk away,” he emphasized.
Foreign Ministers from the P5+1 nations, the European Union, and Iran—John Kerry of the United States, Philip Hammond of the United Kingdom, Sergey Lavrov of Russia, Javad Zarif of Iran, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Laurent Fabius of France, Baroness Catherine Ashton of the EU, and Wang Yi of China—stand for a “family photo” in Vienna, Austria, on November 24, 2014, amid multilateral negotiations with Iran about the future of its nuclear program. (Photo: US Department of State)
The failure of the talks comes against a background in which former CIA chief Michael V. Hayden warned that without actual inspectors on the ground, no agreement can be verified. The Iranians have been very uncooperative when it comes to inspections in the past.
Nuclear talks have not prevented Iran from threatening Israel with annihilation.
At the same time that attempts are being made to prevent Iran from building a bomb with which to destroy Israel, Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force Brig. Gen. Seyed Majid Moussavi boasted that Iran was providing weapons to Israel’s enemies.
“Our strategic guiding principle is the appropriate arming of Hezbollah and Hamas with advanced, modern weapons in order to allow the resistance groups to deal with the bloodthirsty Zionist regime,” Moussavi said. “The missiles that Iran most recently gave to Hezbollah will allow the organization to reach every point in Israel, including the most guarded facilities of the Zionist occupation forces.” (Algemeiner)
