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Naftali Bennett at the UN General Assembly: "You can get away with it."
Photo: John Minchillo / imago images / UPI Photo
According to the Israeli government, Iran has crossed "all red lines" with its nuclear program.
This is what Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Iran wants to rule the Middle East, Bennett said, shielded among other things by a "nuclear shield."
He called on the international community to stop Iran's nuclear activities.
But Bennett also indicated that Israel could possibly take action against Iran itself, which Israel had repeatedly threatened in the past.
His country will not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
Bennett speaks of a turning point
"The Iranian nuclear program has reached a turning point, and with it our tolerance," said Bennett.
"Words don't stop the centrifuges from turning." Inspections were ignored.
"You can get away with it."
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Netanyahu before the United Nations General Assembly in 2012
Photo: LUCAS JACKSON / REUTERS
Overall, Israel's Prime Minister Bennett adopted a less martial tone in his speech than Benjamin Netanyahu, who he replaced as Prime Minister in June.
Netanyahu had often relied on props and visual aids to illustrate his allegations against Iran.
Among other things, he showed a drawing of a bomb in one of his speeches.
Iran started enriching uranium to 60 percent a few months ago.
The threshold value for uranium enrichment for military use of nuclear power is 90 percent.
According to the 2015 nuclear agreement, Tehran is only allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent for civilian use of nuclear energy.
The international agreement is intended to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, in return the international and national sanctions against the country have been lifted.
However, US President Donald Trump unilaterally terminated the agreement in 2018.
Negotiations interrupted after presidential election in Iran
Under the new US President Joe Biden, the US is trying to resume talks.
Renegotiations began in Vienna in April.
However, they were interrupted after the presidential election in June and the change of government in Tehran.
In his speech, Bennett called the new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner, the "butcher of Tehran".
Raisi recently linked a resumption of negotiations to the prospect of lifting all sanctions against the country.
"The Islamic Republic considers talks to be sensible, the ultimate result of which is the lifting of all suppressive sanctions," he said in a video message for the general debate.
Recently, however, he appointed hardliner Ali Bagheri as the new head of the delegation for the talks; he is considered a critic of the agreement.
slü / Reuters / AFP
