Reuters
Washington
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday warned the US that it was negotiating a bad deal with Iran that paved the way to a “nuclear nightmare”, drawing a rebuke from President Barack Obama and exposing the depth of a US-Israeli rift.
Delivering dueling messages within hours of each other, Netanyahu made his case against Obama’s Iran diplomacy in a speech to Congress that aligned himself with the president’s Republican foes. Obama responded in the Oval Office, declaring in a frustrated tone that Netanyahu offered “nothing new”.
In its response, the Iranian government denounced Netanyahu’s 39-minute speech as “boring and repetitive”, the state news agency Irna said.
“If the deal now being negotiated is accepted by Iran, that deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons - it will all but guarantee that Iran will get those nuclear weapons, lots of them,” Netanyahu said.
In an appearance boycotted by dozens of Obama’s fellow Democrats, Netanyahu said Iran’s leadership was “as radical as ever”, could not be trusted and the deal being worked out with world powers would not block Iran’s way to a bomb “but paves its way to a bomb”.
Netanyahu both inveighed against the emerging terms of a deal and suggested broadening the scope of negotiations to require a change to Iran’s regional posture - an idea swiftly rejected by the Obama administration as de facto “regime change” in Tehran.
In a 10-minute rebuttal to Netanyahu’s address, Obama said the prime minister offered no viable alternatives. “The alternative that the prime minister offers is no deal,” he said. Page 12
People demonstrating against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Capitol Hill in Washington yesterday.
