Israel PM Yair Lapid: Iran Nuke Deal Crosses Biden’s Own Red Lines

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sai din a letter to UN Secretar-General Antonio Guterres
AFP
Deborah Brand

Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid slammed the emerging nuclear deal with Iran, saying it didn’t even meet President Joe Biden’s own red lines and won’t prevent Iran from going nuclear. The Israeli premier also said lifting sanctions will provide Iran with “hundred billion dollars a year” to spread terror.

Lapid called on the United States and the European Union to think twice before signing the deal.

“In our eyes, it does not meet the standards set by President Biden himself: preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state,” Lapid said at a press briefing.

Lapid also blasted the E.U. for walking back its “take it or leave it” stance accompanying the proffered deal, instead leaving room for Iran to insist on amendments and make further demands.

“The countries of the West draw a red line, the Iranians ignore it, and the red line moves,” he said.

“If the Iranians didn’t ‘take it,’ why didn’t the world ‘leave it’?” he asked.

E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday acknowledged that Tehran had asked for “adjustments” to the current draft.

The proposal “cannot be accepted as it is written right now,” Lapid said.

“Israel is not against any agreement. We are against this agreement, because it is a bad one,” he said.

According to Lapid, the current proposal will both pave the way for Iran to become a nuclear state and give it the funds needed for its terror proxies, specifically “a hundred billion dollars a year that will be used to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terror around the globe.”

Iran will continue to “kill authors and thinkers in New York,” Lapid said, in apparent reference to the stabbing of Salman Rushdie.

“This money will fund the Revolutionary Guards. It will fund the Basij who oppress the Iranian people. It will fund more attacks on American bases in the Middle East. It will be used to strengthen Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad,” he went on.

He stressed that “if a deal is signed, it does not obligate Israel. We will act to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state.”

“We are not prepared to live with a nuclear threat above our heads from an extremist, violent Islamist regime,” Lapid said. “This will not happen. Because we will not let it happen.”

Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed Lapid, saying that the new agreement was even worse than before.

“The terrible deal with Iran… casts a heavy shadow on our security and our future,” Netanyahu outlined.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.