BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued a series of media interviews in the United States yesterday and said that Israel and the United States are discussing what steps Iran must take which would constitute meaningful progress over Tehran’s nuclear development.

In a PBS interview with Charlie Rose, Netanyahu repeated his praise for US President Obama’s adamant position that Iran must act and not merely talk about its nuclear plans, a point which Netanyahu emphasised earlier in the week addressing the United Nations’ (UN) General Assembly. Netanyahu said that he had conducted an “open conversation” with Obama during his visit and “What we’re talking about right now” is “what are the meaningful actions that will do the job.” He added that the question was not now whether to use diplomacy but rather what kind of deal can be done, emphasising that “a partial deal is a bad deal.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu told the Morning Edition on NPR that Iran’s President Rouhani will offer “minor concessions, cosmetic concessions,” in what he termed a “fake deal” which would render the full weight of sanctions irretrievable. He explained that Rouhani is aiming “to relieve the sanctions, but advance the [nuclear] programme.”

Netanyahu also conducted an interview with BBC Persian TV, directly addressing the Iranian people, even speaking briefly in Farsi. He said “You the people of Iran…you don’t want them to have nuclear weapons, because you will never get rid of this tyranny if it is armed with nuclear weapons.”

Speaking on the CBS This Morning programme, Netanyahu also emphasised the global threat posed by Iran. He said that “The American intelligence knows as well as we do that Iran is developing ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] not to reach Israel. They want to reach well beyond,” specifically aiming “to reach the Eastern seaboard of the United States.”