During his speech, he fell silent for 45 seconds after slamming the UN General Assembly’s “deafening silence” in the face of repeated calls from Iran for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Advertisement
Netanyahu said: “Last week, Major General Salehi, the commander of Iran’s army, proclaimed this: “We will annihilate Israel for sure”. “If Iran’s rulers were working to destroy your countries, perhaps you’d be less enthusiastic about the deal”.
Netanyahu’s speech, which also touched on Syria and the Palestinian peace process, stuck to a recurring theme of his during much of the past two years – warning world leaders to beware of a deal with Iran that leaves the nation’s nuclear program intact.
President Barrack Obama’s administration has vigorously defended the July 14 nuclear agreement with Iran amid criticism from Republicans in Congress, who tried unsuccessfully to kill the deal, and of course Israel, which describes it as the best way to prevent a new conflict in the Middle East.
Iran has been known to have supported terrorist conspiracies, and Israel would not bow down to the nuclear deal.
Lauder made the comments after Abbas said in a UN speech on Wednesday that the Palestinians no longer consider themselves bound by the Oslo peace accords.
Speaking on the lifting of sanctions against Iran, Netanyahu asked, “does anyone seriously believe that flooding a radical theocracy with weapons and cash will curb its appetite for aggression?”
Netanyahu and Kerry both also noted the mass shooting at a college in Oregon on Thursday that left nine people and the gunman dead.
He also reaffirmed Israel’s commitment to an alliance with the US by calling the differences about the nuclear deal “a disagreement within the family” and stating that, in fact, the two countries have no disagreements.
“I am prepared to immediately resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever”, Netanyahu declared.
The Israeli prime minister has a history of taking headline-grabbing gimmicks to the United Nations.
“But we owe it to our peoples to try”.
Addressing Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas directly, he said: “President Abbas, I know it’s not easy”.
Advertisement
Meeting Secretary of State John Kerry in New York on Friday, Netanyahu said he appreciated U.S. condemnation of Thursday’s attack and noted that some Palestinians had praised the killing, which left four young children orphaned.
