Netanyahu Says Israel Committed To Prevent A Nuclear Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Iran International that Israel is “committed to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Iran International that Israel is “committed to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons”.
In a brief interview while in New York for the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu said “the Ayatollah regime having nuclear weapons… should be a concern of all civilized nations.”
He refused to comment on what Israel would do next if the Islamic Republic were to ignore the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, and the international community and carry on with the program.
“We will prevent them,” he said, insisting that the unscheduled, on-the-go interview wasn’t the ‘form’ for a more specific answer.
Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials have repeatedly suggested that they would consider all options to stop Iran having nuclear weapons.
The topic surfaced once more on Wednesday when President Biden and Netanyahu met in New York. And Netanyahu was much clearer in that meeting.
“That shared goal of ours can be best achieved by a credible military threat, crippling sanctions, and supporting the brave men and women of Iran who despise that regime and who are our real partners for a better future,” he said.
The authorities in Iran have always maintained that Iran’s nuclear activities are peaceful. Raisi reiterated this in his speech at the UN General Assembly, condemning the US for ‘breaking the promise’ and leaving the JCPOA nuclear accord.
As Iran has accumulated more than 100 kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent and continues to refine more, concerns have risen. Tehran also banned several IAEA inspectors this month, which was condemned by the United States and its European allies.
Earlier this week, UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told Iran International that such measures make it impossible for IAEA to verify the nature of Iran's nuclear program. He said he would try to meet Raisi to ask him to reverse the decision to expel “a very sizable chunk” of the agency’s inspectors.
But Iran’s President sounded unaffected by the warnings. On his last day in New York, Raisi said the Islamic Republic would not bar inspectors, “but if trust is lost in some inspectors, then the distrusted will be returned.”
Critics of Biden policy on Iran say his soft approach has emboldened the Islamic Republic to pursue a more aggressive strategy in the region, especially after receiving $6 billion in frozen oil revenues.
“The West may think providing carrots—$6 billion—to Khamenei’s regime will lead to de-escalation,” Kasra Aarabi, director of United Against Nuclear Iran, posted on X, “but it’s having the opposite effect. It’s resulted in an overinflated sense of confidence in Tehran, which will increase the regime’s recklessness & strategic errors.”
Last month, Netanyahu blamed Iran for a terror attack that killed a mother of three near Hebron. “We are in the midst of a terrorist assault,” he said, directed and financed by Iran and its proxies”.
That attack in Hebron was celebrated by Hamas officials in Gaza –who are supported by the Islamic Republic.
Israel is trying to reach a peaceful settlement with Arab countries to put more pressure on Palestinians and isolate Iran. Netanyahu emphasized this in his latest meeting with Biden in New York.
“I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “And I think such a peace would go a long way… to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict… and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Speaking to Fox News, bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, known as MBS, spoke candidly about the kingdom’s nuclear ambitions.
While Riyadh and Tehran only reinstated diplomatic ties this year, it is clear the mistrust remains and nuclear is at the heart of their long-strained relations.
While Tehran continues to deny making a nuclear bomb, in recent days it banned one third of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors from visiting the country and continues enriching uranium up to 60-percent purity, only a short step from producing weapons grade fissile material.
When asked about Iran’s escalating nuclear program, MBS said it is “a bad move". "If you use it, you got to have a big fight with the rest of the world,” he said in his English language interview.
Making no secret of his own ambition to match the threat, he told the channel: "If they get one, we have to get one, for security reasons and the balance of power in the Middle East. But we don't want to see that.”
It is no secret that the shared threat of Iran is at the heart of Saudi’s ongoing US-brokered negotiations to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, which until now, have been conducted behind closed doors but include allowing Israeli flights to use Saudi airspace and granting permission to athletes and businessmen to attend events in the kingdom.
During the interview, MBS said ties with Israel are deepening, claiming “every day we get closer”, remarks quickly slammed by Raisi who was clearly unmoved by the fragile nature of the newly revived alliance.
"The initiation of a relationship between the Zionist regime and any country in the region, if it is with the aim to bring security for the Zionist regime, will certainly not do so," Raisi told a news conference as he attended the UN General Assembly, without specifically naming Saudi Arabia.
"We believe that a relationship between regional countries and the Zionist regime would be a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and of the resistance of the Palestinians," he said.
It was not the only diplomatic faux pas Raisi made as he spoke amid the world’s leadership summit, the United Nations General Assembly.
When asked if the regime was still seeking revenge for the murder of Qods force commander, Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s proxy wars in the Middle East murdered in an airstrike by US forces as he traveled from Baghdad’s international airport in January 2020, Raisi was clear.
"That cannot be forgotten or forgiven... How can we overlook this criminal act? ... The perpetrators... they must meet the punishment for the crime committed,” he said when asked by Al Monitor’s reporter.
Just last year, an Iranian operative was charged in a plot to murder former US national security adviser John Bolton, but plots have been unveiled against several other of the Trump administration advisors under whom the orders were given.
US lawmakers and others have criticized the Biden administration for issuing a visa to Raisi to travel to New York, while the Iranian regime continues to threaten former Trump administration top officials, such as Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Last week, Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Hagerty raised the issue in a letter to President Joe Biden, asking if the administration has raised the issue with Iran as it released $6 billion in frozen funds as part of a prisoner release deal.
“It was determined by the Biden Administration that ‘serious and credible threat[s] from a foreign power’…namely the Islamic Republic of Iran, still exists towards” former Trump administration officials…,” the Senators said.
Quoting three regional sources familiar with discussions that Doha has held with Tehran and Washington, the effort is aimed at reaching “understandings” to iron out some differences. The aim is to address slowing Tehran's uranium enrichment alongside more international monitoring, curbing activities of Iran's proxy militias in the region and halting Iran's drone exports, all in return for some waivers on US sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the three sources said.
Officials in Doha said Qatari officials would hold separate meetings with Iranian and US officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week. One source briefed on the talks told Reuters those meetings would include discussing enrichment and Iranian drones.
If there is progress, Qatar aims to host indirect talks between Tehran and Washington, the source said. Qatar helped forge the hostage release deal with shuttle diplomacy between Iranian and US negotiators staying in separate hotels in Doha. The Biden administration agreed to authorize the release of $6 billion in Iranian funds blocked in South Korea since 2018.
Various media have been long reporting about a potential limited and unwritten agreement after formal talks to revive the 2015 JCPOA failed last year. Speculations in this regard became more frequent since June when the US authorized the release of $2.7 billion blocked in Iraqi banks. The Biden administration has played down any prospect of a wider deal, because according to the law, it must report to the US Congress about any nuclear agreement with Iran.
Republicans and some Democrats are becoming more critical of the Iranian regime and the administration’s apparent secret dealings with Tehran. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Mahsa Act September 13, which hardened US sanctions against Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi.
When the US hostages were released earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the door open to diplomacy on the nuclear file, which he described as "perhaps the number one issue of concern", but said nothing was imminent.
"In this moment, we're not engaged on that, but we'll see in the future if there are opportunities," he said in New York, in his response to a question about whether there could be more indirect talks with Iran soon.
Two Iranian insiders said there would be indirect meetings between Tehran and Washington in New York that could pave the way for talks on a nuclear "understanding". They said Iran had never shut the door to nuclear diplomacy.
Another Iranian insider briefed on discussions so far with Qatar told Reuters: "Considering the upcoming US elections, it is possible to reach an understanding that will involve issuing waivers on banking and oil sectors that would allow Iran to export its oil freely and get its money back via the banking system" - currently barred by existing US sanctions.
This would mean an almost total unravelling of economic sanctions imposed since 2018, while leaving Iran on the nuclear threshold, with more than 100 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent.
The three regional sources said Tehran had already committed to lowering enrichment of uranium to 60% - below the roughly 90% needed for a nuclear weapon - and was ready to resume cooperation with the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which monitors Iran's nuclear work.
However, last week Iran withdrew accreditation to several UN nuclear inspectors, angering the IAEA and Western powers that later issued a statement calling on Tehran to rescind its decision. Iran could be upping the ante precisely because there are behind the scenes talks, to extract maximum concessions.