BICOM

Israel and Arab states expressed concern at the emerging nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries.

Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that based on the details emerging, the Iran deal will be worse than Israel originally feared. He said, “This agreement, as it appears, confirms all of our concerns and even more so. Even as meetings proceed on this dangerous agreement, Iran’s proxies in Yemen are overrunning large sections of that country and are attempting to seize control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb straits which would affect the naval balance and the global oil supply.

After the Beirut-Damascus-Baghdad axis, Iran is carrying out a pincers movement in the south as well in order to take over and conquer the entire Middle East. The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis is very dangerous for humanity and needs to be stopped.”

Mr Netanyahu also spoke to US Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell, and will meet with US Speaker John Boehner this week when Mr Boehner visits Israel.

Mr Netanyahu’s comments were echoed by Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, who said yesterday that, “You don’t have to be an intelligence agency member to know that Iran is lying without blinking, that today it is the biggest danger to the stability of the Middle East and the entire world. The Iranian appetite to export the revolution through terrorism will only get bigger, and with the seal of approval it receives as a legitimate state that is a touching distance away from being nuclear – the danger to the West and its allies in the Middle East will be enormous.”

Nabil El-Araby, Secretary-General of the Arab League, also expressed concern about Iran’s nuclear programme at the Arab League summit in Cairo at the weekend. At the opening of the conference, he said, “Iran’s nuclear programme must be subject to monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

The Arab League also began to discuss plans for a joint Arab military force in a move widely seen as an attempt to create a counter to Iranian regional power. A coalition of Arab military forces is engaged in a conflict against Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.