Israel “is in no position to discuss our peaceful program when it has hundreds of nuclear warheads,” Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations said.
By Donna Rachel Edmunds, World Israel News
Iran’s representative to the United Nations has accused Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of lying and “Iran-phobia,” after Bennett used his speech on Monday to criticize Iran’s nuclear program, which he said crossed “all red lines.”
“Iran’s nuclear weapon program is at a critical point,” Bennett told the gathering of world leaders at the UN’s General Assembly in New York. “All red lines have been crossed. Inspections — ignored. All wishful-thinking — proven false. Iran is violating the IAEAs safeguard agreements, and it’s getting away with it.
“Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning.”
Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations shot back at the speech, taking to Twitter to say: “Iran-phobia runs rampant at UN. The Israeli regime PM’s speech was full of lies on Iran. That regime is in no position to discuss our peaceful program when it has hundreds of nuclear warheads.”
Bennett’s trip to New York to deliver the speech was his second visit to the United States since he took over from Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister in June. During his first visit, for a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House, he made it clear that Iran is at the top of Israel’s foreign policy agenda, urging Biden not to re-enter the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, citing lack of transparency within Iran’s nuclear industry. The Islamic state followed suit shortly afterwards. But since taking the reins in January this year, Biden’s administration has worked to revive the deal, with multiple rounds of talks taking place in Vienna.
Those talks stalled over the summer, initially to make way for elections in Iran. But Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s new hard-line president, has indicated little willingness to return to the negotiating table, suggesting it may be some months before talks resume, and refusing to be pressured by Western powers.
“In 1988, Iran set up a “death commission” that ordered the mass murder of 5,000 political activists. They were hanged from cranes. This “death commission” was made up of four people; Ebrahim Raisi – Iran’s new president, was one of them.” Bennett told the General Assembly.
“One of the witnesses of this massacre stated in her testimony that when Raisi would finish a round of murder, he’d throw a party, pocketing the money of those he just executed minutes ago and then would sit down to eat cream cakes. He celebrated the murder of his own people, by devouring cream cakes,” Bennett added. “And now Raisi is Iran’s new president. This is who we’re dealing with.”
While Israel “strives to do good,” Bennett said, the Jewish State was surrounded on all sides by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Shia militias, all intent on domination of the Middle East, and to spread radical Islam worldwide.
“What do they all have in common?” Bennett asked. “They all want to destroy my country and they’re all backed by Iran. They get their funding from Iran, they get their training from Iran, and they get their weapons from Iran.
“Iran’s great goal is crystal clear … Iran seeks to dominate the region – and seeks to do so under a nuclear umbrella.”