Netanyahu rules out partial Hamas disarmament, says Iran must surrender uranium stockpile

Israel’s prime minister lays out terms for implementation of phase two of Gaza plan and for Israel accepting a new nuclear deal with Iran.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out Israel’s terms Sunday for the implementation of the second phase of the Trump administration’s Gaza plan and set out conditions for Jerusalem’s acceptance of a possible nuclear deal between the US and Iran.

Netanyahu addressed the annual summit of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, touting the recovery of the Israeli economy after more than two years of war while warning that the country could be facing a new conflict with Iran.

President Donald Trump, Netanyahu said, “is determined to exhaust the possibilities of achieving a deal,” while the Israeli premier said he was skeptical that a positive agreement can be reached.

“I will not hide from you that I expressed my skepticism of any deal with Iran, because, frankly, Iran is reliable on one thing, they lie and they cheat,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu added that along with strong measures to verify Iranian compliance, any nuclear deal must include the removal of all enriched uranium from Iran.

“But I said that if a deal is to be reached, it should have several components that we believe are important, not only for the security of Israel, but for the security of the world, the United States, the region, the world.”

“The first is that all enriched material has to leave Iran. The second is that there shall be no enrichment capability.”

Iran must also abandon its development and production of long and medium-range ballistic missiles, Netanyahu said.

“Not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantle the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place. And the third is to deal also with the questions of ballistic missiles. There’s an MTCR limitation of 300 kilometers, and Iran is supposed to adhere to it.”

A deal with Iran must also force the Islamic Republic to halt its support for terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, Netanyahu said.

The prime minister also laid out the conditions for moving forward with the second phase of the Gaza peace plan, emphasizing that Israel will not accept a partial disarmament of Hamas.

“Hamas must first be disarmed and then Gaza must be demilitarized. Disarmed means that it must give up – its weapons, not ‘main’ weapons,” he said.

“People said ‘heavy weapons’ — there are practically no heavy weapons in Gaza. There’s no artillery, there are no tanks, there’s nothing. The ‘heavy’ weapon, the one that does the most damage, is called an AK-47.”

Benjamin Netanyahugaza stripHamasIran