Netanyahu: Iran threatens US
New York
Benyamin Netanyahu warned the American people of Iran’s nuclear threat to the entire world on Sunday. He said: “The greatest danger to the entire world is violent Islamist fanatics. They will marry their mad ideology to weapons of mass-destruction, if they get their chance.” He added “They see us in the West as weak and contemptible, because we see value in diversity…We will win in the end. But they are like the Nazis, who took down millions of people with them. They have to be stopped.” He pointed to the threat from Iran, which, unless prevented, will be able to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons “in a very short time, weeks or months.” Explaining the specific threat to us all, he said “Iran can put atomic devices on a ship and send them to any port in the world.” He added that we should not be deceived by the new Iranian President Rouhani’s soft language. “Iran is bamboozling the West, and Rouhani’s words are a cover for this. The real leader in Iran is Ayatollah Khamenai and he’s a dictator.” The Israeli urged the United States to stop Iran from progressing its nuclear industry.
The Premier was speaking directly to the Americans on the programme “Face the Nation,” the leading current affairs program, broadcast to millions on CBS TV. He claimed that Iran, Al Qaida, ISIS and Hamas “all share the same twisted ideology” and present a terrible danger. “Militant Islam’s first victims are Muslims, and then Christians, Jews, Yazidis, gays and women.” He stated that ISIS are a threat to Israel too and offered the US assistance in combatting them. Nonetheless, he was clear that both the Iranian and the Assad regime in Syria, both also fighting ISIS, should not be rewarded for this. “Why should we assist regimes which practice terrorism all the time, all the time” he emphasized, “and use weapons of mass-destruction?”
In the programme, Mr Netanyahu repeatedly stated the problems arising from Iran’s refusing access to nuclear inspectors. A few hours after the broadcast, an explosion destroyed a secretive defence ministry complex at Parchin, east of Tehran. Iran had previously refused to allow UN nuclear inspectors to inspect the very same site.
Asked about his relationship with President Obama, for which Mr Netanyahu has often been criticised in Israel, he described it as “quite good, but not like an old married couple.” He said Mr Obama told him that he, the USA President, has had more meetings with the Israeli leader than with any other foreign leader. Mr Netanyahu emphasized the shared interests of the two and their “mutual respect and appreciation.”
Copyright Rosemarine 2014