Washington -
An unbridled Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, on Tuesday night accused the United States and its allies, including Britain, of pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran so weak that it would all but ensure that it acquires nuclear weapons, catapulting the world into a “nuclear nightmare”.
“That deal would not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, it would guarantee it - lots of them,” Mr Netanyahu said in a highly anticipated speech to a joint meeting of Congress that sounded like the diplomatic equivalent of a blunderbuss being fired at the nation that has sponsored Israel's survival.
His address, which drew repeated applause from an audience from which as many as 50 Democrats had absented themselves, had attracted the ire of the White House even before it was made.
While Mr Netanyahu did not expose parts of the deal under secret consideration, as some US officials had feared he might, his speech was none the less an attack on one of President Barack Obama's most prized foreign policy goals, an accommodation with Iran on its nuclear ambitions.
The response from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue was largely dismissive.
“On the core issue, which is how do we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons… the Prime Minister did not offer any viable alternatives,” Mr Obama said, adding he had not seen the speech but read a transcript.
There was “nothing new” in it, he said.
“If anyone thinks this deal kicks the can down the road, think again,” Mr Netanyahu said.
“When we get down that road, we'll face a much more dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare.”
Lasting 40 minutes, his address branded Iran a nation in the grip of a “genocidal” regime intent on “gobbling up” its neighbours and destroying Israel.
He also implied that the deal, now in the critical and possibly final stages of negotiation in Geneva, was the product of self-delusion and naïvety on the part of US and its allies.
“Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted,” regardless of any promises to allow international inspections of its facilities, he said.
“The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons.”
Mr Netanyahu singled out the notion that Mr Obama had himself spelled out on Monday, that the curbs to be imposed on Iran's nuclear industry would last 10 years. A blink of an eye in the life of Israel, he said. Thereafter there would be no barrier to Iran having nuclear arms.
“Iran could have the means to deliver that nuclear arsenal to the far-reaching corners of the Earth, including every part of the United States,” he contended.
“That is why this deal is so bad. It doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb, it paves Iran's path to the bomb.”
In a Hemingway flourish, he added: “This deal won't be a farewell to arms; it would be a farewell to arms control.”
Earlier, Mr Obama staunchly defended the approach taken with Iran by the US, the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.
The deal under discussion “would be far more effective in controlling their nuclear programme than any military action we could take, any military action Israel could take and far more effective than sanctions will be,” he said in a filmed interview with Reuters on Monday.
“There's no expert on Iran or nuclear proliferation around the world that seriously thinks that Iran is going to respond to additional sanctions by eliminating its nuclear programme,” said the President.
In a passage clearly meant to compare the approach being made to Iran with the appeasement of Adolf Hitler, the Israeli Prime Minister noted the presence in the public gallery of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel.
“I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned,” he intoned.
“I can only urge the leaders of the world not to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
He added: “Iran is not merely a Jewish problem any more than the Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. It poses a great threat not only to Israel but to the peace of the entire world.”
Mr Netanyahu implied that part of the lure of a deal was the notion Iran might help with the destruction of the Islamic State, or Isis. “Don't be fooled,” he said.
“The battle between Iran and Isis doesn't turn Iran into a friend of America… The enemy of your enemy is your enemy.”
In Israel, Mr Netanyahu's challenger in the elections, Isaac Herzog, head of the Labour Party-led Zionist Union, said the speech would widen the rift with Obama. But Alon Liel, former director general of the Israeli foreign ministry, said it would boost Mr Netanyahu's prospects in a close contest.
“This speech might have saved Netanyahu's seat as Prime Minister,” he said.
“A lot of the criticism by Labour has been that Netanyahu is isolating Israel but when you see such a show you can see that Israel is not isolated. Netanyahu has shown the public that 'we can get away with whatever we want'.”
Additional reporting: Ben Lynfield, Jerusalem
The Independent