Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced fear that Iran will comply with a nuclear deal reached with six major world powers earlier this month until a final deal is sealed by the end of June, a media report revealed.
This came about during a cabinet meeting held on April 3, a day after Iran and P5+1 group of world powers — the US, Britain, China, France and Russia plus Germany — reached after nine-day talks in Switzerland’s Lausanne a framework accord on parameters of Iran’s nuclear programme with a view to sealing a final comprehensive deal by the end of June, Xinhua reported citing the Ha’aretz daily.
During the meeting, Netanyahu said he was afraid that “the Iranians will keep to every letter in the agreement if indeed one is signed at the end of June”, two Israeli officials were quoted as saying by the daily.
The officials told the daily that Netanyahu expressed his concern that if the Iranians live up to the agreement, the international community would become “complacent” over the prospects of a nuclear bomb.
“Netanyahu said at the meeting that it would be impossible to catch the Iranians cheating simply because they will not break the agreement,” one of the officials told the Ha’aretz daily.
According to him, Netanyahu said the Iranians could have a seal of approval from the international community to go ahead and develop nuclear bombs after the 10- to 15-year period of the agreement.
The Israeli Prime Minister is known for his hardline approach against the Iranian nuclear programme. He believes that a nuclear Iran will be an “existential threat” to the state of Israel and to the entire Middle East, although the Iranians insist their nuclear plan is aimed at peaceful purposes.
Netanyahu slammed the recent framework agreement, saying it would “threaten the survival of Israel”, adding that Israel “will not accept an agreement that allows a country that vows to annihilate it to develop nuclear weapons, period”.
He decried the fact that the programme keeps intact a fixed amount of centrifuges to enrich uranium and enables Iran to carry on its nuclear research and development, while lifting the economic sanctions Iran had suffered from for a decade over its nuclear programme.