JERUSALEM — Israeli leaders denounced the interim Iranian nuclear pact signed by the United States and five world powers as a “historic mistake” that does little to reverse Iran’s nuclear ambitions and instead makes the world a more dangerous place. Israeli officials stressed that they would spend the next six months — the time frame for the interim agreement — seeking to push their friends and especially the White House to reach a deal with Iran that not only curbs Iran’s nuclear ambitions but also dismantles its program.

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Israel’s Netanyahu calls Iran deal ‘historic
mistake’
Abir Sultan/AP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in
Jerusalem. After feverishly trying to derail the international community's nuclear deal with Iran in recent weeks,
Netanyahu now has little choice but to accept an agreement that he has derided as deeply flawed.
By William Booth, E-mail the writer
JERUSALEM — Israeli leaders denounced the interim Iranian nuclear pact signed by the
United States and five world powers as a “historic mistake” that does little to reverse Iran’s
nuclear ambitions and instead makes the world a more dangerous place.
Israeli officials stressed that they would spend the next six months — the time frame for the
interim agreement — seeking to push their friends and especially the White House to reach
a deal with Iran that not only curbs Iran’s nuclear ambitions but also dismantles its
program.
Officials here say that means a final
comprehensive deal that would require Iran
to dismantle its centrifuges, remove its
enriched uranium and decommission its
heavy water reactor in Arak, among other
things, in exchange for the lifting of
economic sanctions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
stressed Sunday that Israel was not a party
to the talks that ended with a deal in
Geneva early Sunday morning and
therefore was not bound by the agreement
that provides for the temporary, limited
lifting of economic sanctions against Iran in
exchange for Iran halting or scaling back
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2. exchange for Iran halting or scaling back
parts of its nuclear program.
“What was achieved last night in Geneva is
not a historic agreement, but a historic
mistake,” said Netanyahu in remarks before
his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday
morning.
“Today the world has become a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous
regime in the world has taken a significant step toward attaining the most dangerous
weapon in the world,” the prime minister said.
Netanyahu repeated a reference to his own red line by stating, “Israel will not allow Iran to
develop a military nuclear capability.”
President Obama plans to speak with Netanyahu on Sunday to discuss the agreement,
according to a senior administration official.
Iran says that its nuclear program is peaceful, that it has a right to enrich uranium, as
other nations do, and that its nuclear projects are designed only for energy production and
medical research, though many in the international community say otherwise. While Iran
has put in place elements of a military program, U.S. officials say Iran has not made the
decision to move ahead with a nuclear weapon.
If Iran does reach a critical point where it could decide to quickly sprint forward with the
construction of a nuclear device, Israeli leaders in the past have warned they could be
forced to strike Iran, alone if necessary.
“The last-second amendments put into the agreement are far from satisfactory,” Israel
intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz said. “The current deal, like the 2007 failed deal with
North Korea, is more likely to bring Iran closer to having a bomb.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the deal “brings us to a nuclear arms race.”
“The world has to understand that this is the biggest diplomatic victory Iran has had in
recent years,” Lieberman said. “There's no doubt the agreement recognizes Iran’s right to
enrich uranium.”
The White House described the interim deal as “the first meaningful limits that Iran has
accepted on its nuclear program in close to a decade” and said that these first concessions by
Iran — to halt all uranium enrichment above 5 percent, not to install or use additional
centrifuges, not to commission its plutonium reactor — are coupled with increased
transparency and intrusive monitoring of its facilities by inspectors from the International
Atomic Energy Agency.
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Joby Warrick
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continues, the Obama
administration also faces skeptics
in Congress.
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