Israeli PM: NO chance of a final Iran deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that there is “no chance” the West will reach a final deal with Iran over its nuclear program, following comments by Iranian officials last week that they had not agreed to dismantle any nuclear centrifuges. “If Iran will stand by that statement, that means that a permanent agreement–which is the goal of the entire diplomatic process with Iran–cannot succeed,” Netanyahu said according to a report by The Jerusalem Post .

The Post added that Netanyahu’s comments came Sunday, after he addressed his cabinet just hours after his return from Davos, Switzerland.

Iran, and not negotiations with the Palestinians, dominated his talks with world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Netanyahu told the cabinet.

He told the cabinet that the most important thing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had said during his speech to the forum was that Iran had not dismantled, and will not dismantle, a single centrifuge.

“If Iran stands by that statement, that means that a permanent agreement – which is the goal of the entire diplomatic process with Iran – cannot succeed,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

“There is a problem here,” Netanyahu said. “We know the truth. There is a regime here that, under the cover of a charm offensive, is trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons, to become a nuclear threshold sate that can achieve nuclear weapons very quickly, and a state that has not changed its true ideology at all.”

Late last year, Netanyahu called the interim deal with Iran an “historic mistake” and made clear that Israel was not party to the agreement. The deal provides that Iran receives sanctions relief in return for temporarily suspending high-level nuclear enrichment and provides some access to UN inspectors.

Agencies