Tuesday on CNN’s “New Day,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the so-called Iranian nuclear deal agreed upon during Barack Obama presidency and warned that the expectations of what the deal might bring for Iran were wrong.
Netanyahu the deal would do nothing to moderate the internal politics of Iran.
Partial transcript as follows:
CUOMO: Well, the secretary of defense right now, Mattis, said, “We put this deal together assuming they would try to cheat.” So it wasn’t done assuming that they would change as a state actor, Iran. Nobody went into it with their eyes closed to that — you know, that reality.
But it’s better than nothing, right? If there were no deal in place right now, you would have no idea what was going on.
NETANYAHU: No, I disagree. I disagree with that.
CUOMO: And how would that make Israel safer? If by all accounts Iran has slowed or stopped what it was doing prior to the deal…
NETANYAHU: I disagree with that.
CUOMO: … how would you be safer without a deal?
NETANYAHU: There are many premises that are incorrect in your — in your statement.
CUOMO: Please.
NETANYAHU: The first is, we’d be better off — we’re better off because we have this deal. No, you’re not, because this deal — the fact that you have a dangerous deal, you know, the fact that Iran is keeping or not violating a dangerous deal doesn’t make it less dangerous.
It’s completely flawed. It’s based on lies. It’s based on the fact that they hid the nuclear weapon program and knowledge that they stored up. They didn’t come clean with it.
And it’s also based on the fact that Iran will somehow be a docile neighbor. That’s not what’s happening. The opposite has happened.
I said from the start, look, if you want peace, if you want security, you should have opposed that deal as structured. I said that. I said that Iran is not going to be more pacific, more moderate once you sign the deal. And it’s exactly what has happened. Iran has done the very opposite.
It’s taken in the money, the billions, and it’s using it to conquer Yemen, to fire rockets on Saudi Arabia, to colonize Syria militarily, to arm Hezbollah with the most dangerous missiles on Earth, to call for Israel’s inhalation, to spread its totalitarian winds throughout the Middle East, and to oppress its people inside Iran to boot.
So the whole premise that this deal somehow guarantees a safer, more moderate Iran is wrong. This deal paves Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal.
If you got rid of it, the first thing that would happen is you would crash Iran’s money machine in which its pursuing its dreams of a conquest and empire. They’re funding it with billions — tens of billions of dollars, their aggression throughout the region. And this deal facilitates it. If you take away the deal, they’re going to be in a huge economic problem.
Second thing, I think you have to insist that you actually dismantle the components that allow Iran to produce an — an arsenal of nuclear weapons. If you don’t and you do nothing, then I predict that what you do is head right into a wall. You’d head into a terrible conflict and perhaps a terrible war in which Iran would be armed with nuclear weapons. That’s bad.
If you want peace, oppose this deal.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.