‘Iran have been given a licence to kill’: Netanyahu blasts ‘historic mistake’ of agreeing Tehran nuclear deal as Israeli ministers condemn the ‘surrender by the West to the axis of evil’
‘One cannot prevent an agreement when the negotiators are willing to make more and more concessions to those who, even during the talks, keep chanting: “Death to America”,’ he said.
‘Our concern is that the militant Islamic state of Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons.’ He added that Iran would receive a ‘cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars’.
Miri Regev, a former military spokeswoman who serves as Israel’s culture and sports minister, said it gave Iran a ‘licence to kill’, adding that it was ‘bad for the free world (and) bad for humanity.’
Naftali Bennett, a member of Israel’s Inner Security Cabinet, said the nuclear deal with Iran marked ‘a new dark and sinister era for the world.’
Speaking to CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Bennett said that ’20 years down, if a nuclear bomb explodes in London or New York, we’ll know that we can trace it down to July 14, 2015.’
‘We’re preparing for everything we need to do to defend ourselves’, Bennett added.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely called the deal ‘a historic surrender by the West to the axis of evil headed by Iran.’
She said that Israel would ‘act with all means to try and stop the agreement being ratified’, a clear threat to try to use its influence to block it in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress.
After long, fractious negotiations, world powers and Iran struck the historic deal earlier today – an agreement aimed at averting the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran and another U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who spent the last 19 days leading the talks in Vienna, hailed the accord as ‘the good deal that we sought’.
‘We were determined to get this right and I believe our persistence paid off,’ he told reporters, adding that the agreement marked a historic day.
He noted that Iran’s National Security Council would also review the deal ‘and if they think it is against our national interests, we will not have a deal’, he said.
‘The Islamic Republic will not sign a bad deal.’
The final round of talks in Vienna involved nearly three weeks of intense negotiation between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
It was something that would until recently have been unthinkable for two countries that have been bitter enemies since 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
‘I believe this is an historic moment,’ Zarif, who was educated in the United States and developed a warm rapport with Kerry, told a news conference.
‘Today could have been the end of hope on this issue, but now we are starting a new chapter of hope. Let’s build on that.’
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who acted as coordinator for the powers, said: ‘It is a decision that can open the way to a new chapter in international relations and show that diplomacy, co-ordination, cooperation can overcome decades of tensions and confrontations.
‘I think this is a sign of hope for the entire world.’
Hatred of the United States has been a defining trait of Iran’s ruling system, on display last week when it marked the last Friday of the Ramadan fasting month with an annual day of protests, crowds chanting ‘Death to Israel!’ and ‘Death to America!’.
Obama first reached out to Iranians with an address in 2008, only weeks into his presidency, offering a ‘new beginning’.
Iran has long denied it is seeking a nuclear weapon and has insisted on the right to nuclear technology for peaceful means, although Western powers feared the enriched uranium that it was stockpiling could be used to make a bomb.
Obama never ruled out using military force if negotiations failed.
Iran’s IRNA news agency said billions of dollars in frozen funds would be released under the deal, and sanctions on its central bank, national oil company, shipping and airlines would now be lifted.
Western diplomats said Iran had accepted a ‘snapback’ mechanism, under which some sanctions could be reinstated in 65 days if it violated the deal.
The breakthrough came after several key compromises.
Iran retains right to conduct research into enriching uranium for 10 years, without stockpiling it
Iran agreed to the continuation of a UN arms embargo on the country for up to five more years, though it could end earlier if the International Atomic Energy Agency definitively clears Iran of any current work on nuclear weapons.
A similar condition was put on U.N. restrictions on the transfer of ballistic missile technology to Tehran, which could last for up to eight more years, according to diplomats.
Washington had sought to maintain the ban on Iran importing and exporting weapons, concerned that an Islamic Republic flush with cash from the nuclear deal would expand its military assistance for Assad’s government, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other forces opposing America’s Mideast allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Iranian leaders insisted the embargo had to end as their forces combat regional scourges such as the Islamic State.
And they got some support from China and particularly Russia, which wants to expand military cooperation and arms sales to Tehran, including the long-delayed transfer of S-300 advanced air defense systems – a move long opposed by the United States.
Another significant agreement will allow U.N. inspectors to press for visits to Iranian military sites as part of their monitoring duties, something the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had long vowed to oppose.
However, access isn’t guaranteed and could be delayed, a condition that critics of the deal are sure to seize on as possibly giving Tehran time to cover up any illicit activity.
Under the accord, which runs almost 100 pages, Tehran would have the right to challenge the UN request and an arbitration board composed of Iran and the six world powers would then decide on the issue.
The IAEA also wants the access to complete its long-stymied investigation of past weapons work by Iran, and the U.S. says Iranian cooperation is needed for all economic sanctions to be lifted.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said Tuesday his agency and Iran had signed a ‘roadmap’ to resolve outstanding concerns, hopefully by mid-December.
The economic benefits for Iran are potentially massive.
It stands to receive more than $100 billion in assets frozen overseas, and an end to a European oil embargo and various financial restrictions on Iranian banks.
The deal comes after nearly a decade of international, intercontinental diplomacy that until recently was defined by failure.
Breaks in the talks sometimes lasted for months, and Iran’s nascent nuclear program expanded into one that Western intelligence agencies saw as only a couple of months away from weapons capacity.
The U.S. and Israel both threatened possible military responses.
The disputes are likely to continue, however.
In a foreshadowing of the public relations battle ahead, Iranian state TV released a fact sheet of elements it claimed were in the final agreement – a highly selective list that highlighted Iranian gains and minimised its concessions.
Among them was an assertion that all sanctions-related U.N. resolutions will be lifted at once.
While a new UN resolution will revoke previous sanctions, it will also re-impose restrictions in a number of categories.
Beyond the parties to the pact, spoilers abound.
In the United States, Congress has a 60-day review period during which Obama cannot make good on any concessions to the Iranians.
U.S. lawmakers could hold a vote of disapproval and take further action.
Iranian hardliners oppose dismantling a nuclear program the country has spent hundreds of billions of dollars developing.
Khamenei, while supportive of his negotiators thus far, has issued a series of defiant red lines that may be impossible to reconcile in a deal with the West.
And further afield, Israel will strongly oppose the outcome. It sees the acceptance of extensive Iranian nuclear infrastructure and continued nuclear activity as a mortal threat, and has warned that it could take military action on its own, if necessary.
Sunni Arab rivals of Shi’ite Iran are none too happy, either, with Saudi Arabia in particularly issuing veiled threats to develop its own nuclear program.