Netanyahu distances himself from Defense Ministry statement on Iran deal

After a statement put out by Israel’s Defense Ministry appeared to insult the Obama administration over the controversial Iran Nuclear Deal, Prime Minister Netanyahu was quick to distance himself from the remarks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to smooth things over with Washington after Israel’s Ministry of Defense on Friday issued a scathing criticism of remarks made by President Barack Obama that Israel’ military has now endorsed the controversial nuclear deal with Iran.

The prime minister’s office issued a statement in which it said that Israel “has no greater ally than the United States.”

However, “Israel’s position on the Iran nuclear agreement stands as it was: that those who supported the deal and those who opposed it must work together to ensure that Iran does not violate the agreement; in order to address Tehran’s regional aggression, and in order to dismantle its global terror network,” the statement said, asserting Israel position that it still opposes the nuclear deal.

Seeking to set the focus on a shared future as opposed to a divisive past, Netanyahu stated he “looks forward to translating those goals into a common policy, and to further strengthening the alliance between Israel and the United States, with President Obama, and with the next US administration,” the statement read.

A senior official in Netanyahu’s office also called the US ambassador in Israel, Dan Shapiro, to discuss the incident.

The statement issued by the Defense Ministry, headed by Minister Avigdor Liberman, said “agreements have value only if they are based on an existing reality, and that they have no value if the facts on the ground are completely the opposite of [the concepts] on which an agreement is based on.”

The statement also compared the Iran deal to the failed 1938 pact between Great Britain and with the Nazi Germany, which ultimately led to World War Two.

Netanyahu’s office claims they had no knowledge of the language used by the Defense Ministry, and that it was not coordinated with them.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News