Newly sworn in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a toast during a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, December 29, 2022
Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel's prime minister with a hard-right cabinet promising to thwart Iran's nuclear program and beefing up Israel's military.
Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, passed a vote of confidence in his new government Thursday with 63 voted in favor and 54 votes against.
Outgoing Yair Lapid, who was in the Prime Minister's office for only half a year, said during the swearing -in session that his joint government with Bennett thwarted US President Joe Biden's efforts to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
“Contrary to all the rageful predictions and prophecies, our government managed to stop the signing of a revived nuclear agreement with Iran,” Lapid said.
"The Revolutionary Guards were not removed from the list of terrorist organizations and the International Atomic Energy Agency did not close its investigatory files on Iran," he added.
In his parliamentary speeches beforethe swearing in on Thursday, the 73-year-old Netanyahu said his three big missions are stopping Iran’s nuclear program, developing state infrastructure, and restoring internal security and governance to Israel.
Earlier, in an interview with Al-Arabiya Netanyahu reiterated his long-standing opposition to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and urged Saudi Arabia to ‘normalize’ with Israel.
He called the JCPOA, signed by world powers in 2015, a “horrible agreement because it allowed Iran basically with international approval, to develop a nuclear and basically an atomic arsenal paved with gold, with hundreds of billions of dollars of sanction relief.”