Netanyahu: Nuclear pact a ‘dream deal’ for Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the agreement over Iran’s nuclear weapons programs is a resounding victory for Tehran.

{mosads}“This regime has just received the dream deal,” Netanyahu told host John Dickerson on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“This deal paves Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal,” he said.

“It makes the problem of terrorism in the region and the world much worse by giving Iran billion of dollars for their war and terror machine,” Netanyahu added. “Not a good deal.”

The Obama administration announced its historic pact with Iran on July 14 after 20 months of negotiations.

“Look, I feel it’s my obligation as the prime minister of Israel to speak out against something that endangers the survival of my country, the security of the region, the security of the world,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

“It’s not only important to us, I think it’s important for the entire world,” Netanyahu added.

Netanyahu additionally said that the accord mirrors a similar agreement with North Korea that did not achieve its stated goals with Pyongyang.

“That proved to be a historic mistake as well,” he said of the diplomatic agreement with North Korea.

“And North Korea today has a dozen nuclear bombs and is on track to get within a few years a hundred nuclear bombs,” Netanyahu said.

“So I think this is a repeat of the mistake of North Korea,” he added.

Netanyahu has long argued an Iran with nuclear weapons threatens his nation’s existence.

The Obama administration hopes the accord prevents an Iranian nuclear weapons arsenal through peaceful diplomacy.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has repeatedly vowed the deal will not change his antagonistic policies toward both the U.S. and Israel.

Netanyahu said in a separate appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that he worries that spy agencies may miss any covert work Iran performs on nuclear weapons.

“I have respect for our intelligence services,” Netanyahu told host George Stephanopoulos. “They’re the best in the world – Israel, the U.S. and the U.K.”

“And yet, all three of us didn’t see for a long time the massive underground nuclear bunkers in Qom and in Natanz,” he said of Iranian nuclear research installations.

“So, I have full respect for intelligence,” Netanyahu added. “But it’s very thin ice.”

The Israeli leader additionally charged that the U.S. cannot easily soothe his nation’s concerns over the accord.

“I guess the question you have to ask yourself is, ‘If this deal is supposed to make Israel and our Arab neighbors safer, why should we be compensated with anything?” Netanyahu asked.

“I think the right thing to do is not to do this bad deal,” he added.

–This report was updated at 12:13 p.m.