JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blasted a deal reached in Vienna on Tuesday between the P5+1 group of world powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear energy program.
Speaking at a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, Netanyahu described the landmark agreement as “a huge mistake of historic proportions.”
Under the terms of the deal, he asserted, “Iran will receive hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue its terror and aggression in the region and the world.”
He went on to assert that it was “impossible to prevent the agreement with Tehran when the negotiators are willing to make more concessions.”
Netanyahu also responded to criticism of his policies by the Israeli opposition, saying world powers were willing to reach an agreement at any price.
“We have never committed ourselves to preventing the agreement,” he said. “But, we pledged to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”
Israeli opposition MP Isaac Herzog had earlier criticized Netanyahu for failing to prevent the deal.
“Any deal with Iran is a bad deal, but this was particularly bad,” Herzog said of the agreement, for which he held Netanyahu responsible.
Avigdor Lieberman, for his part, the head of Israel’s far-right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, described Tuesday’s deal as the “danger of the future.”
“This deal will be remembered like the [1938] Munich Agreement and the [1994] agreement with North Korea,” said Lieberman.
