Netanyahu Claims US ‘Mini-Deal’ Won’t Stop Iranian A-Bomb, Israeli Attack

The Israeli premier says a nuclear agreement between Iran and the US will neither stop the regime from building a bomb nor stop Israel from attacking the Islamic Republic. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the remarks on Sunday in reaction to reports citing a Western official that the objective of the impending nuclear deal between Washington and Tehran is to stop Israel from attacking Iran.

The statement goes against all other reports in recent days that quoted other Israeli politicians such as Yuli Edelstein, the head of the Israeli parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who said Israel could accept such a deal if it includes rigorous supervision of Tehran's nuclear program. 

“Our first mission is to stop Iran from going nuclear,” Netanyahu said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting. “We made clear to our American friends time after time, and I am doing it again today, that we oppose agreements, first of all to the original agreement called the JCPOA, which will just pave Iran’s way to the bomb and will pad it with hundreds of millions of dollars.” 

“We also tell [the Americans] that more limited understandings, what’s called a ‘mini-deal,’ does not serve our purpose, in our opinion, and we oppose that, as well,” he said, claiming that his “principled opposition” to the JCPOA played a part in ensuring the US does not return to that deal. 

Bibi added that “Israel will do whatever it needs on its own to defend itself from Iranian aggression, whether on the nuclear file or its terrorist proxies.”