Netanyahu: Major powers say they will wait for the ‘right’ Iran deal

Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Several major powers’ governments have indicated that they will not sign a bad agreement with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“Following my speech to Congress, we heard – over the weekend – several of the major powers’ foreign ministers saying that they do not see the need to reach an agreement forthwith and that they will wait until the right agreement is found. I hope that these words will find tangible expression,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet Sunday at the start of the regular weekly meeting.

Netanyahu said the right agreement is “one that links between the lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and the cessation of Iran’s terrorist actions around the world and, of course, its threats to annihilate Israel. The right agreement is one that extends by years Iran’s break-out time to achieve a bomb, given the feasibility of violating the agreement.”

Netanyahu, in a speech last week to a joint meeting of Congress, argued that the proposed nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran, whose framework is set to be inked on March 24, will lead inexorably to a nuclear-armed Iran and war in the Middle East, in part because it would let most of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure stay in place, including thousands of centrifuges.

“We will continue to take all possible action to deny the largest terrorist state in the world the ability to produce the most dangerous weapon in the world, a weapon which is aimed – first and foremost – against us,” Netanyahu said.