Itongadol/AJN.- Prime Minister gives keynote speech at annual pro-Israel lobby\’s policy conference, day after meeting with Obama at White House.
Iran is a terror state and must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and pledged that he would do whatever it took to protect Israel.
Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to the possibility that a deal to curb Iran\’s disputed nuclear program would allow it to retain some technologies that have bomb-making potential.
"Unfortunately the leading powers of the world are talking about leaving Iran with the capability to enrich uranium. I hope they don\’t do that, because that would be a grave error. It would leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power," he said.
"This would enable Iran to rapidly develop nuclear weapons," Netanyahu warned. "If we allow this outlaw terrorist state to enrich uranium, how can we seriously demand that other countries not enrich uranium?"
"I will do whatever I must do to defend the Jewish state of Israel," he vowed.
The prime minister rejected claims that Israel was only interested in a military option when it came to Iran, but said that increased pressure was the only way to ensure that the Islamic Republic met its obligations.
"I\’m often asked whether Israel truly wants diplomacy to succeed – of course we want diplomacy to succeed," he said. "No country has a greater interest in the peaceful elimination of the Iranian nuclear threat. But this will only be done with an agreement making Iran fully dismantle its nuclear capabilities… Pressure is what brought Iran to negotiating table, only more will get them to abandon (their military nuclear program).
"Greater pressure won\’t make war more likely, it will make war less likely," he said. "The greater the pressure on Iran and the more credible the threat of force, the stronger the chance force will never have to be used."