Israel's Prime Minister warned the international community Tuesday against allowing Iran to retain its enrichment capability.
“I hope they don't do that because that would be a grave error. It would leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power,” Binyamin Netanyahu said at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference. “It would enable Iran to rapidly develop nuclear weapons at a time when the world's attention is focused elsewhere.”
“Letting Iran enrich uranium would open up the floodgates. It really would open up a Pandora's box of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and around the world,” the Israeli Premier asserted, calling Iran an ‘outlaw state.’
An interim agreement signed between Iran and the P5+1 countries in November consists of a short-term freeze of portions of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a relaxation of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Regarding peace talks with the Palestinians, Netanyahu demanded that Ramallah recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
He further refuted the idea that Palestinian refugees who fled, or were expelled as a product of, conflicts should be allowed to return, telling Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to make clear that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people.
“You would be telling Palestinians to abandon the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees, or amputating parts of the Negev and the Galilee. In recognizing the Jewish state, you would finally [be] making clear that you are truly prepared to end the conflict. So recognize the Jewish state. No excuses, no delays, it's time.”
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had also remarked on Iran's nuclear program and Palestinian-Israeli peace talks at the same conference.
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