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Friday, April 3, 2015

Netanyahu warns of nuclear arms race

Netanyahu warns of nuclear arms race

AP Photo

By NAHAL TOOSI & NICK GASS | 04/02/2015 07:33 PM EDT | Updated: 04/03/2015 12:24 PM EDT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Friday that the preliminary nuclear deal with Iran "might very well spark a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East."

"The cabinet is united in strongly opposing the proposed deal," the prime minister said in a statement, following a meeting with the body. He added that any final agreement must include "unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel's right to exist."

The country's officials continued to attack the deal on Friday, vowing to state their case to the U.S. Congress because, said a top Netanyahu spokesman, it is a matter of "fundamental security" to both countries and to the region.

"Well if you look at the deal as a whole, it's a problem," Mark Regev said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday morning, expressing Israel's worry over how the framework would allow Iran to continue its enrichment of uranium and to maintain thousands of centrifuges.

"These are all matters of concern," he said, but the biggest problem for Israel "is that this is a regime that is exporting its version of the Islamic Revolution" to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. "And this is a regime that says my country should be destroyed, and now they want the nuclear power to implement that evil design. We can't allow it to happen."

Regev expressed skepticism when asked about the monitoring provisions of the framework, touted by U.S. officials as the toughest in history.

"We have seen over the years monitoring is highly problematic when you're dealing with authoritarian, totalitarian regimes that are committed to concealment," Regev said, adding that Iran's nuclear facilities in Fordow and Natanz, for example, went undetected for years before U.S. or Israeli intelligence discovered them.

"The alternative is to keep up the pressure until you get a good deal, a deal that does significantly roll back Iran's nuclear infrastructure, a deal that insists on a change in Iranian behavior," he said. They must stop their aggression in the region, they must stop their global support for terrorism, and they must stop calling for my country's destruction. That's a good deal."

"Why is Iran building intercontinental ballistic missiles?" Regev asked. "They're a threat to you, too."

Regev's remarks come after Netanyahu trashed the deal on Thursday, telling President Barack Obama it would "threaten the survival" of his country.

Netanyahu expressed his opposition in a call with Obama in the hours after the U.S., Iran and five world powers unveiled the agreement in Switzerland.

According to a readout posted on Twitter by the Israeli Embassy in the United States, the prime minister said the deal would "legitimize Iran's nuclear program, bolster Iran's economy, and increase Iran's aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond."

He also pointed to an Iranian militia leader's reported comments that the Islamic Republic remains committed to Israel's destruction.

"Such a deal would not block Iran's path to the bomb. It would pave it," Netanyahu wrote, repeating one of his signature lines about the Iran talks.

The Obama administration defended the deal against Israeli criticism on Friday, saying officials would not take a deal that would undermine security.

"We're going to consult, as we have been, very, very closely with Israel. And we understand that for Israel, Iran poses an existential threat," Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Friday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "But we are not going to take a deal, and we haven't taken a deal, and we won't take a deal that undermines our security or Israel's or our Gulf partners'. To the contrary, it advances it."

In its own readout of the call on Thursday, the White House said that Obama "emphasized that the United States remains steadfast in our commitment to the security of Israel" but that "the framework represents significant progress towards a lasting, comprehensive solution that cuts off all of Iran's pathways to a bomb."

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