Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the P5+1 countries on Monday against signing a deal with Iran that would allow it to become a nuclear threshold power.
“There are reports that the P5+1 countries are close to a deal with Iran on Iran’s nuclear programme,” Netanyahu said in a short video that he posted on YouTube. “I call on the P5+1 countries – do not rush into a deal that would let Iran rush to the bomb.”
Netanyahu said that he has ordered his office to send letters to the foreign ministers of the P5+1 countries, which include the US, UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany, in which he would relate “verbatim” the recent words of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“In the last 48 hours, Khamenei called for the annihilation of Israel,” he said. “He gives nine ways and reasons of how and why Israel should be annihilated – his words, not mine. He is publicly calling for the annihilation of Israel as he is negotiating a nuclear deal with the P5+1 countries.”
“There is no moderation in Iran. It is unrepentant, unreformed,” the prime minister said. “Iran supports global terrorism and has deceived the world with respect to its nuclear programme.”
“This terrorist regime in Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear threshold power,” he insisted.
It is worth noting that instead of saying the Islamic Republic of Iran, Netanyahu used the phrase the “Islamic State of Iran”, a clear effort to connect Iran with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, a similar fabrication he has tried with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
In Oman, the nuclear negotiations with Iran recommenced early on Monday. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU’s consultant on Iran’s nuclear programme Kathrine Ashton are discussing the outstanding issues to finalise the deal.