“Dangerous regimes should denuclearize,” Netanyahu said, explaining that those who support Trump’s effort to denuclearize North Korea should stand behind his quest to halt a nuclear Iran.
By: World Israel News Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a parallel between Iran’s aspirations for nuclear weapons and North Korea’s nuclear program Sunday night saying that “dangerous regimes should denuclearize.”
“I believe the entire world prays, as we do, that this effort is successful,” Netanyahu said. The Israeli premier has made it clear that he supports Trump’s decision to pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran.
Netanyahu was speaking to the AJC Global Forum at a time when the world was poised for a historical meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Netanyahu continued the parallel, saying that just as the world should be sensitive to the needs of Iran’s neighbors who are threatened by Iran’s aspirations to nuclear weapons capability, so, too, it should understand the needs of South Korea and Japan vis-a-vis North Korea.
“Now, imagine, imagine: Imagine that President Trump would come back with some deal, and Britain, France and Germany would applaud it and South Korea and Japan would say that it endangers their existence,” Netanyahu said.
The same divide over Iran exists between countries in the Middle East such as Israel and Saudi Arabia and Europeans and the Chinese with regard to the Iran deal. Nations that are in Iran’s missile range tend to oppose the deal while those outside the range of Iranian missiles tend to be in favor.
“This deal was applauded by many in the international community who are not in the missile range of Iran, but Israel and Saudi Arabia and others said this deal will ultimately give Iran a nuclear arsenal,” he explained.
Israel fears it will be Tehran’s first target after it becomes nuclear, Netanyahu stated.
“They will use [nuclear weapons] first against us, and then with the long-range missiles that they’re building and that the deal doesn’t prevent them from building, against everyone else,” he said.