Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz and Bayit Yehudi Minister of Education Naftali Bennett both used the podium at the World Summit On Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya to call for the annulment of the nuclear deal signed between the P5+1 group of world powers and Iran in July 2015.
Katz said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States later this month, during which he will attend the United Nations General Assembly, would be critical in view of the North Korean nuclear crisis.
“The prime minister should demand that President [Donald] Trump freeze, change or annul the nuclear agreement with Iran,” Katz said.
“The lesson from the [North] Korean example is that compromise and negotiation – instead of decisive action – with a dictatorship aiming for nuclear capabilities leads in the end to crossing the threshold and a change in the rules of the game. In its current framework, the deal will lead with certainty to a nuclear [armed] Iran.”
Bennett also concentrated on Iran, calling a nuclear Iran “the only significant existential threat to Israel.”
“We cannot allow a situation in which the essence of Zionism – a safe home for the Jewish people — is under such an existential threat. We did not gather the Jews from all four corners of the earth in order to turn them into a nuclear target,” Bennett said.
Next month, Trump is to decide whether or not to re-certify to Congress that the Iranians are holding up their end of the nuclear deal, in accordance with a law passed by Congress requiring the president to reaffirm Iran’s compliance with the deal once every 90 days.