Iran Nuclear Deal—a “Stunning, Historic Mistake”

September 8, 2015

Israel

“The ruler of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei, says after this agreement is concluded that he’s going to continue the battle against the United States. He’s going to continue supporting terrorists in the Middle East and in the world. He’s committed to Israel’s destruction…This is a very bad deal with a very bad regime. It’s not good for anyone’s security—not ours, not yours.”

PM Benjamin Netanyahu,
interview with CBS

 “In effect, it is paving Iran’s way to being not only a major power with one or two nuclear bombs, but with an unlimited arsenal within a decade with the possibility of achieving several atomic bombs beforehand, by violating the monitoring which, in any case, is full of holes.

“In addition to this, the agreement also gives Iran many billions of dollars, apparently hundreds of billions of dollars, within a short time, which will allow it to finance its increasing aggression, first of all the murderous stranglehold it is using around the State of Israel, but also in other parts of the Middle East that are subject to its aggression, such as Yemen, Iraq and many other places.

“Therefore, there is both a conventional threat and a non-conventional threat, which in my view will heighten the nuclear arms race in the Middle East.”

PM Benjamin Netanyahu,
addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee

“If someone thought that the extraordinary concessions to Iran would lead to a change in its policy, they received a crushing answer over the weekend in Iranian ruler Khamenei’s aggressive and contrary speech. The Iranians aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they will use the hundreds of billions that they will receive under this agreement in order to arm their terror machine and they are clearly saying that they will continue their struggle against the US and its allies, first among them being Israel, of course.

“Today Iran is arming terrorist organizations with missiles, tomorrow they will have the ability to arm them and themselves with much deadlier weapons.”

PM Benjamin Netanyahu,
speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting

“Now, in the summer of 2015, the countdown to Iran becoming a threshold nuclear state has begun. In 5 years, the embargo against conventional weapons will end; in 8 years, they can acquire missile technology; in 10 years, unlimited centrifuges. This is not disarmament. This is a timetable for Iran to build nuclear weapons. In future years, the consequences of this mistake will become clear to all, but for Israel, tomorrow is already too late.”

Israel’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Ron Prosor,
addressing the UN Security Council

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom told the Daily Telegraph that if the upcoming nuclear agreement with Iran did not include a serious Iranian commitment to refrain from developing nuclear weapons, then as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, “all options are on the table.” He emphasized that over the years, his country had opposed the development of nuclear weapons, but that Iran’s policy on the issue “has changed the whole outlook in the region.”

Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom,
Emir Muhammad bin Nawwaf bin ‘Abd Al’ Aziz Al-Saud,
Daily Telegraph (UK)

“…The Saudi nuclear program will be ready to develop and produce nuclear weapons that will deter Iran’s nuclear program once its agreement with the superpowers expires…The timeframe of the Iranian nuclear agreement should be long enough for us to build a Saudi nuclear program that will serve as a deterrent to the Iranian nuclear program.”

Al Jazeerah columnist Khaled Ibrahim Al-Hajji (Saudi Arabia)

Iran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Mojtaba Salimi/wikipedia.org “No one can say Iran surrendered. The deal is a legal, technical and political victory for Iran. It’s an achievement that Iran won’t be called a world threat any more.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

“The forged and temporary Israeli entity, which is an alien existence forged into the body of a nation and a region, [will] be wiped off the map.”

Former Iranian president Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

“Iran is now at its peak of power in centuries. Iran’s sphere of influence stretches from the Mediterranean to the Indian peninsula, from Kazakhstan to Yemen. This is why the world superpowers have been negotiating with us for so long. That’s why we were able to reach a deal which guarantees our interests.”

Iranian diplomat, Sadegh Kharrazi
in an interview with Iran’s state TV

United States

US Secretary of State John Kerry “I’ve been around this thing for a long time—29 years in the Senate, and I’m very proud of the 100% voting record for Israel in the course of that time, and nobody I think has worked harder to try to bring peace to the Middle East or to Israel than I did over the last few years…I really believe that what we are doing we’re gaining a safety and security for Israel and the region that no alternative presents.”

Kerry went on to warn that if Congress overturns the agreement with Iran, “I fear… our friends in Israel could actually wind up being more isolated and more blamed.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry,
speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York

 “To the Israeli people I say this: A nuclear-armed Iran is far more dangerous than an Iran that benefits from sanctions relief…The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some form of war…Military action would be far less effective than this deal.”

US President Barack Obama,
speaking at American University

Photo Credit: Kremlin.ru/commons.wikimedia.org