Netanyahu tells Congress Iran deal guarantees nuclear arms
Washington - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that an emerging U.S. agreement with Iran would backfire and ensure that the Islamic Republic gains a nuclear arsenal.
"That deal would not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons - it would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them," Netanyahu said in Washington, speaking to a joint meeting of the House and Senate in an effort to head off an accord being negotiated between Iran and world powers. "It paves Iran's path to the bomb."
Netanyahu accepted the invitation from Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio to address Congress without consulting President Barack Obama's administration, adding to tensions with an ally that provides $3.1 billion a year in military aid to Israel. Obama has said he isn't inviting Netanyahu to the White House because the visit is just two weeks before Israel's March 17 election.
"I deeply regret the fact that some perceive my being here as political," Netanyahu told lawmakers. "That was never my intention."
The Israeli leader, making his case against an accord, said it would leave Iran with a "vast nuclear" program. He said thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium "would be left spinning" and "thousands more would be temporarily disconnected but not destroyed."
"This is a bad deal," Netanyahu said. "This is a very bad deal. We're better off without it."
Instead, he said, a better deal can be obtained by "keeping up the pressure on a very vulnerable regime, especially given the recent collapse in the price of oil."
At least 37 Democratic lawmakers, including six senators and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, said in advance that they would skip the speech. Others, such as Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said they would attend.
Boehner said in a video on Monday previewing the speech that "America's bond with Israel is stronger than the politics of the moment."
Netanyahu drew a standing ovation when he entered a House chamber filled close to capacity and dozens more rounds of applause as he spoke.
Among guests in the chamber were Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace prize winner; lawyer Alan Dershowitz; and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate and backer of Republican candidates and pro- Israel causes.
In his speech, Netanyahu said "Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei spews the oldest hatred, the oldest hatred of anti-Semitism with the newest technology. He tweets that Israel must be annihilated."
Even before Netanyahu presented his case against a deal with Iran, the Obama administration offered its arguments that pursuing an agreement that would place strong restrictions on Iran's nuclear program remained the best option.
"There is simply no alternative that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon better or longer than the type of deal we seek," Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, said Monday in an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington. "Soundbites won't stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Strong diplomacy, backed by pressure, can."
Obama said on Monday that the rift with Netanyahu is only a temporary distraction and won't cause permanent damage to the U.S.-Israel relationship. While there is "substantial disagreement" between his administration and Netanyahu's government over how to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, their differences aren't personal, Obama said in an interview with Reuters.
Obama said Iran's government would have to accept at least a 10-year freeze on its nuclear program that's verifiable.
During the address, Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting in one-on-one talks with Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on a nuclear deal in Montreux, Switzerland. The talks, in their second day, came as Iranian leaders made statements readying their nation for a resolution to the decade-long dispute.
Netanyahu in the past has threatened Israeli airstrikes to thwart Iran, though it would take U.S. military capabilities to do more than delay an Iranian effort to develop nuclear weapons.
The U.S. and its allies say Iran has been seeking the capability to build nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic says its program is purely for peaceful, civilian purposes.
Israel is widely thought to possess its own nuclear arsenal, although it has never acknowledged that or signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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