Special to WorldTribune.com

Israel will take its concerns on the Iran nuclear agreement to the key players on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold said. “We’ll do it respectfully, but we have to tell the truth,” Gold said.

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal “repeats the mistakes made with North Korea.”

“Imagine you could stop the Soviet Union in 1945 from getting nuclear weapons. Imagine you had no Cold War. That would have been a much safer and better world,” Gold said. “It’s understandable how it happened, how the Cold War emerged from World War II. But here, with Iran, you have the chance to prevent it. And if you don’t prevent it, you’re setting the stage for the next global struggle.”

Netanyahu on July 14 said the P5+1 powers have “gambled that in 10 years time Iran’s terrorist regime will change – while removing any initiative for it to do so. In fact the deal gives Iran every incentive not to change.

“This deal repeats the mistakes made with North Korea,” Netanyahu said. “There, too, we were assured that inspections and verifications would prevent a rogue regime from developing nuclear weapons. And we all know how that ended. The bottom line of this very bad deal is exactly what Iran’s President (Hassan) Rowhani said today: the international community is removing the sanctions, and Iran is keeping its nuclear program.”

Gold warned the deal likely will allow Teheran to acquire a “substantial intercontinental ballistic missile force” and eventually turn it into a world power.

“They can afford a strategy of silence when there is one player in the region who is defending not just itself but the entire Middle East,” Gold said. “When Prime Minister Netanyahu stands up and attacks Iran, he’s not just defending Israel. He’s defending Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and all the other Sunni countries.”

At a July 14 press conference in Jerusalem with visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, Netanyahu called the deal a “bitter mistake of historic proportions.”

“In every area where it was supposed to prevent Iran attaining nuclear arms capability, there were huge compromises,” Netanyahu said. “I will refer later to the details of the agreement, but before that, I would like to say here and now – when you are willing to make an agreement at any cost, this is the result.”

“We did commit to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and this commitment still stands,” Netanyahu concluded. “I say to all the leaders in Israel, it is time to put petty politics aside and unite behind this most fateful issue to the future and security of the State of Israel.”

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