Prime minister slams emerging nuclear deal, declares Tehran ‘more dangerous’ than Islamic State
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Iran poses more of a threat to the West than the ultra-radical Islamic State group and that Tehran is planning to “take over the world.”
“Iran’s growing aggression is several times more dangerous than that of IS, which is dangerous enough,” Netanyahu told a memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, marking 111 years since the death of Theodor Herzl, the visionary forefather of modern Zionism.
“And this aggression, which aims to reach every corner of the world, has the ultimate true aim of taking over the world,” he added.
Although Shiite Iranians and the Sunni Islamic State group have been fighting each other, they share the common goal of destroying Western values, said Netanyahu, who often equates the Islamic State to Iran, as well as to Palestinian militant groups.
“The radical Shiite camp under Iranian leadership on one side, and the Sunni spearhead in the form of the Islamic State group on the other, are applying cruel terror with shocking zeal and carrying out a war to the death among themselves,” he said. “Meanwhile, they are united in their hostility to the West and willingly trample on the achievements of freedom and progress.”
Netanyahu criticized an emerging deal between world powers and Iran over the latter’s controversial nuclear program, which, he argued, caves to too many of the Iranians’ demands. The prime minister has strongly opposed the deal, claiming that not only does it not go far enough toward putting nuclear arms beyond Iran’s reach, but actually aids its quest for such weapons.