Itongadol.- Iran will not get a nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said unequivocally to a group of Russian Jewish leaders Thursday.
After saying that the “true” Iran was not the one of propaganda films produced by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif smiling and speaking about a peaceful future, but rather that of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calling Jews “rabid dogs.”
“It is forbidden for Iran to have nuclear weapon,” he said. “And I can promise you they won’t have nuclear weapons.”
Netanyahu, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday for some 4 ½ hours, said that both Russia and Israel share the goal of preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons. He did not, however, reveal whether he succeeded in persuading Putin to take a more forceful stand against Iran at the talks between the P5+1 currently taking place in Geneva.
Netanyahu is trying to get the Russians to take a more active role in those talks, in the hope that this would lead to a type of agreement with Iran similar to what the Russians brokered regarding Syria’s chemical weapons. Syria, because of its leverage in Syria, was instrumental in getting Syrian President Bashar Assad to agree in September to dismantle his chemical weapons arsenal. Of the P5+1 countries — the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — Russia has the closest ties and most leverage with Iran.
In addition to meeting Russian Jewish leaders, Netanyahu briefed senior Russian journalists Thursday morning. He is also scheduled to do two more media interviews and visit the new Jewish museum in Moscow before heading back to Israel late Thursday night.