Special to WorldTribune.com

“Preventing Iran from being able to build nuclear weapons is the preeminent challenge of our generation,” and there is still time to stop a bad nuclear deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on June 7.

Speaking to the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York City via video conference on June 7, Netanyahu called for “patience and resolve, to hold out for a better deal, one that will actually block Iran’s path to the bomb, one that will tie the lifting of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to changes in Iranian behavior.”

“We must understand that Iran doesn’t just threaten the destruction of Israel; it is conquering huge swaths of the Middle East as it seeks to export its Islamic revolution across the globe.”

The Israeli leader went on to say that “Iran’s campaign of aggression engulfs the entire Middle East: Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Libya, elsewhere.

“Today, Iran is sponsoring worldwide terrorism in the Middle East, in Asia, in Africa, in Europe, in North and South America. Today, Iran is conducting an unprecedented conventional arms build-up: drones, rockets, satellites, submarines, precision guided missiles and other lethal weapons. And in recent months Iran has supplied increasingly sophisticated weapons to its terrorist proxies: to Hizbullah, to Hamas, to Islamic Jihad, the Houthis in Yemen and others. Today, Iran conducts cyber attacks against Israel, its Arab neighbors and the West.

“Iran is doing all this today without nuclear weapons. Think of what Iran would do tomorrow with nuclear weapons,” warned Netanyahu.

Netanyahu said that framework deal worked out in April “paves Iran’s way to produce the enriched uranium for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons. That’s the inevitable outcome if Iran keeps the deal. If they decide to break the deal, they can get to the bomb much sooner. The deal also gives Iran tens of billions of dollars immediately, and hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years.”

Netanyahu was thankful to the U.S. for “all they have done for Israel’s security,” but said “even the closest of friends can respectfully disagree about issues of international security. And of these, none is more important to Israel, to the stability of the Middle East and to the peace of the world, than the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program.

“A better deal is still possible. It’s not too late,” he said.

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