Gal-On: Netanyahu sows despair with remarks on Iran deal

Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said even though the nuclear deal with Tehran has been implemented, Iran must not be trusted.

“Israel will continue to monitor Iran’s negative activities and will take all necessary measures to maintain its security and defend itself”, the prime minister’s office said.

Israel, the Middle East’s sole but undeclared nuclear power, remained pessimistic about the landmark Iranian nuclear deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Tehran of still seeking nuclear military capabilities, destabilising the region and spreading terrorism globally.

The UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced on Saturday that Iran complied with all the demands stipulated in the July 2015 nuclear deal, prompting the debilitating economic sanctions, imposed on the country in the past decade, to be lifted.

“Were it not for our efforts to spearhead the sanctions and foil Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran would have already had nuclear weapons long ago”, Netanyahu told his cabinet. We hope that the regime will soon release American prisoner Robert Levinson, who has been held captive in Iran for almost nine years and whose fate remains unknown.

They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium – enough before the deal for several bombs – and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.

The ADL also urged “strong USA pushback” on human rights violations, Iran’s regional expansionism and further missile development, which it said exemplified “ongoing militarism”.

Israel argues that the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran has been eclipsed, for the time being, by the threat of conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other guerrillas who now stand to get increased funding from Tehran. “But we are very, very anxious and the Gulf countries are very, very anxious and it is absolutely clear to everyone that this hiatus is utterly temporary”, Ben-Barak said. “This is an important part of permanent policy between us and the United States, our ally, and it is important in order to repel threats in the region, especially the Iranian threat”.

Netanyahu said those negotiations were in the final stages.

AIPAC called the lifting of sanctions, which coincided with Iran’s release of five United States citizens, a “dangerous moment for America and our allies”.

Before President Hassan Rouhani was elected, Obama administration officials would have had a hard time justifying a simple telephone conversation with an Iranian counterpart on any matter.