Israel’s leaders are not pleased about the Iran nuclear agreement emerging from the current talks in Vienna. But none is so incredulous as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who dedicated much of his foreign policy efforts to curbing Tehran’s atomic ambitions.
Amid reports that the new, or rather renewed Iran nuclear deal will still enable the Islamic Republic to attain nuclear weapons in the near future, Netanyahu warned that the ayatollahs can now “take the world hostage.”
As other Israeli experts have explained previously, it’s not just the threat of Iran actually firing nuclear missiles at Israel or another enemy. The mere possession of nuclear weapons by Iran will tip the balance of power in the Middle East and facilitate Iranian aggression in other ways, in addition to sparking a regional nuclear arms race.
“Once you have a predatory, and especially in a rogue theocratic regime like this, have nuclear weapons, they can use them in two ways: One, they can threaten you directly with atomic bombs. Secondly, they have a nuclear umbrella, which is … to threaten you with conventional weapons like regular missiles or terrorists or anything else,” Netanyahu expounded in an interview with Fox News.
Netanyahu went on to recall that as prime minister he took the “unusual step” of bypassing the White House and taking his grievances over the previous Iran nuclear deal directly to Congress.
At the time, President Joe Biden was Vice President to Barak Obama. According to Netanyahu, Biden is making an even bigger mistake than his previous boss.
The deal emerging from the Vienna talks would permit Iran to continue enriching uranium in limited quantities, but would not take any direct measures to prevent it from scaling up enrichment when the duration of the agreement ends. Additionally, the Islamic Republic’s frozen assets will be released, and America and other Western powers will offer additional concession, such as possibly removing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. from lists of recognized terrorist organizations.
See: Taking Biden to Task: Israel Unhappy With Overtures to Iran
“This is the kowtowing of the democratic world — unfortunately, of the rest of the world — to this rogue regime, giving it both the weapons of mass death, an enormous pile of cash to boot,” stated an outraged Netanyahu. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
