Netanyahu Says Iran Must End 'Aggression' for Sanctions Relief
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday Iran should have to end its "aggression in the region" to win relief from sanctions, taking another swipe at a framework nuclear agreement.
World powers agreed with Iran last week on the framework of a deal to be signed by the end of June to rein in its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday called for the sanctions to be totally lifted on the same day that the deal is implemented.
But Netanyahu, whose government has repeatedly denounced the framework agreement as an "historic mistake", said any such move should be linked to other issues.
"Instead of lifting the restrictions on Iran's nuclear facilities and program at a fixed date, a better deal would link the lifting of these restrictions to an end of Iran's aggression in the region, its worldwide terrorism and its threats to annihilate Israel," he said in a statement.
Earlier, Netanyahu warned the Islamic republic could not be trusted.
"To my regret, all of the things I warned about vis-a-vis the framework agreement that was put together in Lausanne are coming true before our eyes," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying, referring to the Swiss city where the framework deal was agreed.
"This framework gives the leading terrorist state in the world a certain path to nuclear bombs," he said.
"How can such a country be trusted?"
Haaretz newspaper on Sunday said he had told his top officials that even full Iranian compliance with the terms of an international deal would be a ploy to lull the international community into complacency and should on no account be taken at face value.
The paper cited two senior officials as reporting his comments to an emergency meeting of his security cabinet on April 3, the day after the framework agreement was reached between Iran and world powers.
The Israeli leader had told his ministers Iran would probably "keep to every letter in the agreement," deflecting scrutiny of its nuclear program.
"Netanyahu said at the meeting that it would be impossible to catch the Iranians cheating simply because they will not break the agreement," one of the officials was quoted as saying.
Netanyahu reportedly said that in 10 to 15 years, when the main clauses of the agreement expire, sanctions would be lifted, Iran would get a clean bill of health and then it would push ahead with its nuclear plans.
"Iran insists on maintaining its formidable nuclear capabilities with which it could produce nuclear bombs," he said in Sunday's statement.
"Iran refuses to allow effective inspections of all its suspect facilities," he said.
Israel and many Western governments suspect Iran's civilian nuclear program is a front for efforts to build a military capability -- a charge which Tehran denies.
Israel has the Middle East's sole, albeit undeclared, nuclear arsenal.
Source: Agence France Presse
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