Netanyahu: Proposed Deal Would “Guarantee” Nuclear-Armed Iran

In a controversial address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal being negotiated between the United States and Iran would “all but guarantee” Iran gets nuclear weapons and “lots of them.” He said the deal, which has not yet been signed, “would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure,” that eventually would allow the country to “amass enough weapons-grade uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb.” Netanyahu acknowledged the proposed deal does provide “certain restrictions,” which would be supervised by international inspectors. “But here’s the problem,” he said. “Inspectors document violations; they don’t stop them.” He warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would set off a “nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the planet,” creating a crisscross of “nuclear tripwires” across the Middle East. Netanyahu said restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program should not be lifted until the country does three things: “First, stop its aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East. Second, stop supporting terrorism around the world. And, third, stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state.” President Obama said Netanyahu has made similar speeches before, yet “even Israeli intelligence officers and some members of the Israeli government have acknowledged that in fact [the interim deal] has kept Iran from further pursuing a nuclear program,” according to a pool report.