Netanyahu tells Lester Holt: “the hard-liners in Iran have scored a tremendous victory”
JULY 15, 2015 — In an interview with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Iran “the number one terrorist regime in the world” and asserted that the deal announced Tuesday “poses a great danger to America and the world.”
Netanyahu criticized the agreement with Iran, saying: “Effectively they were given both the relief of their sanctions, keeping their infrastructure, and allowing it to expand within a few years. They actually — the hard-liners in Iran have scored a tremendous victory because they’re being given their yellow cake and eat it too. They can have it and eat it too.”
The prime minister also addressed the relationship between Israel and the U.S., whether he will lobby Congress, and the measures his country will take to defend itself.
A transcript is below and embeddable video is online here: http://nbcnews.to/1JhGYc3
Portions will air throughout the day on MSNBC and tonight on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”
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MANDATORY CREDIT: NBC NEWS
LESTER HOLT: Mr. Prime Minister, I’d like to begin by asking you about your conversation with president Obama yesterday. Can you give us the essence of what you told him?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Well, you know I respect President Obama and we can respectfully disagree. I thought and I said that this deal poses a great danger to Israel. I believe it poses a great danger to America and the world. When you let the number one terrorist regime in the world have a sure path to the bomb and hundreds of billions of dollars with which to finance its terrorism around the world, that’s not good for any of us.
LESTER HOLT: Do you think that the relationship between Israel and the US has been fractured? Do you feel the president has betrayed you on this issue?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: No, look I think we have a disagreement and I appreciate the alliance with the United States, the support that we receive from the President, the Congress and the American people, but we have a real disagreement. We think this is not merely a threat to us. We think it’s a threat to you as well. You know just four, five days ago, the so-called moderate president of Iran was at a rally in Tehran at which they burned American flags, chanting ‘Death to America.’ Iran has killed more Americans than anyone other than Al-Qaeda. Iran is building intercontinental ballistic missiles not to reach us, they already have those missiles, but to reach every part of the United States.
And the supreme leader of Iran said just the other day, he says the battle against the United States will continue even after the deal. You know for them we’re the little Satan. You’re the great Satan. And now I think they’re being empowered to conduct that battle and I think that this is bad for us for you and the world.
LESTER HOLT: Are you going to continue to make that point to members of the US congress? Will you be lobbying Congress to reject this deal?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Look I’m making that point to anyone who will listen, I’m making it to you now. And I have tell you it’s not just my private point, I’ve just come from the Knesset, we had a session in which I and the opposition leader, the leader of the Labor Party Isaac Hertzog, expressed our disapproval, our opposition to this deal. This cuts across Israel, it’s not a partisan issue in Israel, it shouldn’t be a partisan issue in the United States. And let me tell you something else — it cuts across Arabs and Israelis in the Middle east, most of the Arab leaders, whether privately or publically, think that this is very dangerous to them too. And I would advise this: it doesn’t happen very often in history, but when Arabs and Israelis agree, it’s worth paying attention.
LESTER HOLT: But those in Congress who call themselves friends of Israel, will you be making a special appeal to them?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: I’m making a special appeal to everyone who is concerned with the future of our world. Because I think that Iran is different. It is a Zealot country. It is a country that is governed by a group that believes in militant Islamic fundamentalism. It has killed a lot of Americans, it is killing everybody in sight in the Middle East, it’s in Yemen, it’s around our borders, it’s got a terrorist network that encompasses now 30 countries. It is curious in this agreement that the head of this terrorist arm, sanctions are removed, some of the sanctions are removed from the head of the terrorist force that propels its terrorism around the world. I think that this is a big mistake. And I think that Iran has here two paths to the bomb.
One is if they keep the deal, and the other is if they cheat on the deal. They can cheat on the deal because inspections are not instantaneous, anywhere anytime, as foreign minister of Iran Zarif said correctly. In fact you don’t have inspections within 24 hours, you have twenty-four days before you can inspect any site that you find suspicious in Iran. 24 days! Can you imagine giving a drug dealer twenty-four days’ notice before you check the premises? That’s a lot of time to flush a lot of meth down the toilet.
LESTER HOLT: You’ve made it clear that Israel is not bound by this agreement. So what does that mean in practical terms? Do you reserve the right to attack unilaterally to take some kind of military action?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: It means that when you have a regime that calls for our destruction, including in the last few days, that says they’ll wipe Israel off the face of the earth, we’ll take whatever measures are necessary to defend ourselves. But I think they’re not merely targeting us, remember we’re for them just the small Satan.
LESTER HOLT: The president has stated that you don’t want Iran to have any nuclear capabilities at all. His point is that involves eliminating the presence and knowledge of nuclear technology and his argument is that’s not going to happen. Does that make sense?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Look, I think there’s a difference. You can have a pilot, but without a plane he can’t fly. And I think Iran has been left to play in a big airplane in which to fly, and in 10 years all the limitations on production of the centrifuges will effectively disappear. They’ll be able to produce a tremendous number of fissile material for an endless number of bombs. So I think that’s very dangerous.
I think a better deal is possible. I think the biting sanctions that were applied in 2012 have been effective. I think tougher sanctions, certainly maintaining these sanctions, would have forced Iran to choose. They had to choose basically between lifting the sanctions and rolling back, truly rolling back their nuclear capability. And not for temporary time but for forever.
They were given both — effectively they were given both the relief of their sanctions, keeping their infrastructure, and allowing it to expand within a few years. They actually, the hard-liners in Iran have scored a tremendous victory because they’re being given their yellow cake and eat it too. They can have it and eat it too.
LESTER HOLT: Do you think the president is being naive? Based on, on the arguments you are making, do you believe he’s being naive?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: I think we have an honest disagreement. I think the real question is what is the nature of this Iranian regime? And I thought that the right deal would have lifted the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program only if we saw perceptible change in Iran’s behavior.
That’s essentially what I said in my speech before the U.S. congress. But in fact there is no linkage to Iran’s change of behavior. They can continue their regional aggression, their terrorism worldwide, their subversion in so many countries in so many lands. In fact they’re going to get hundreds of millions of dollars to fuel their terror and military machine.
And they don’t have to change anything. They’re even going to get their arms embargo lifted within a few years, so in fact there’s been a kind of reverse linkage. Iran gets to maintain all its aggression and terror and they get to basically open — open or rather unrestricted use of most of their terror, nuclear infrastructure within about a decade. That’s a mistake and I think, I think we simply disagree on this. But it’s not only me, it’s so many of the Arab leaders here. And Israel and the other Arab countries, our fate is directly, most directly affected by this deal. But so is your fate, because remember, Iran says our real goal, our real nemesis, our real enemy is the United States of America.
And to give the pre-eminent terrorist regime of our time access to nuclear weapons down the line, access to the capacity to make a very large nuclear arsenal with zero breakout time, in a few years, and money to finance terrorists today, I think that is a big big mistake.
LESTER HOLT: Prime Minister Netanyahu I want to thank you very much for your time. It was good speaking with you sir.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
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