Netanyahu Says He Will Defeat Iran’s ‘Aggressive Empire’

Taking a break from his legal woes on Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to defeat Iran’s ‘aggressive empire’.

During a a hawkish address before the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC in Washington, the Israeli PM presented an ominous map with the countries of the Middle East ,that he claims Iran seeks to dominate colored, in black.

Accusing Tehran of exploiting its role supporting President Assad in Syria’s civil war in order to set up permanent bases on Israel’s border, he claimed: “Darkness is descending on our region. Iran is building an aggressive empire…..The force behind so much of what is bad is this radical tyranny in Iran. I have a message for you today, it’s a very simple one: we must stop Iran, we will stop Iran”

Press TV reports: Netanyahu, who faces an intensifying corruption probe at home, claimed that the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had made Tehran’s atomic program more dangerous.

Iran and the P5+1 countries – namely the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany – finalized the nuclear accord in July 2015 and started implementing it in January 2016.

Under the deal, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

Netanyahu described the agreement as a great threat to peace in the region and claimed that Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear missiles.

He said Israel and its Arab allies would support a possible move by US President Donald Trump to tear up the JCPOA if it is not strengthened in a way to prevent Tehran from resuming its alleged quest for atomic weapons.

The Israeli premier threw his weight behind a “right policy” adopted by the US president to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“We will never let Iran develop nuclear weapons – not now, not in 10 years, not ever,” Netanyahu told the pro-Israel lobby group.

Iran has in the past repeatedly denied similar allegations by Netanyahu and his allies as baseless.

President Trump has repeatedly described the JCPOA, which was negotiated under his predecessor, Barack Obama, as “the worst and most one-sided transaction Washington has ever entered into,” a characterization he often used during his presidential campaign, and threatened to tear it up.

Trump has threatened to pull out of the JCPOA unless Congress and America’s European allies help “fix” it with a follow-up agreement within a 120-day deadline.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday everyone will regret the possible collapse of the landmark nuclear agreement as the US continues its efforts to sabotage the deal and issues threats to pull out of it.