Netanyahu: ‘Unconscionable’ that world talks with Iran as Tehran calls for destruction of Israel

PM’s comments come after Iranian general says Israel’s destruction is “non-negotiable.”

JPOST

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued on Wednesday to rail against the Iranian nuclear deal being negotiated in Lausanne, saying it was outrageous that the world negotiates with Tehran as one of its military leaders says Israel’s destruction is “non-negotiable.”

“Yesterday an Iranian general brazenly declared and I quote: ‘Israel’s destruction is non-negotiable’, but evidently giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable,” he said. “This is unconscionable.”

Israel Radio on Tuesday quoted Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of the Iranian revolutionary Guard’s Basij (volunteer) militia, as saying on the anniversary of the Islamic Republic Day in Tehran that “wiping Israel off the map is not up for negotiation.”

Iran’s Fars News Agency reported on Naqdi’s speech, but left out in its English story any reference to Israel, instead highlighting threats he made toward the Saudis for their intervention against the Iranian-supported Houthis in Yemen.

Netanyahu said that the concessions offered to Iran in the talks in Switzerland “would ensure a bad deal that would endanger Israel, the Middle East and the peace of the world.”

He said that the international community needed to insist on a better deal that would significantly roll back Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Then, picking up on a theme that he introduced during his speech to Congress last month, Netanyahu said that a better deal “would link the eventual lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to a change in Iran’s behavior.”

As the talks continue, he said, “Iran is accelerating its campaign of terror, subjugation and conquest throughout the region, most recently in Yemen.”

Iran, the prime minister said, “must stop its aggression in the region, stop its terrorism throughout the world and stop its threats to annihilate Israel. That should be non-negotiable and that’s the deal that the world powers must insist upon.

Harking back to comments US President Barack Obama made in December 2013, Netanyahu said he agreed with those who said “that Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes doesn’t square with Iran’s insistence on keeping underground nuclear facilities, advanced centrifuges and a heavy water reactor.”

Netanyahu said Iran’s claims of a peaceful nuclear program is also incompatible with its insistence on developing ICBM’s and refusal to “come clean with the IAEA on its past weaponization efforts.”