Israel said the world must not be deceived by the moderate statements made by Iranian President Hasan Rouhani who said in in an interview with NBC channel that his country has never sought a nuclear bomb and it does “not seek war with any country.”
“One should not be taken in by Rouhani’s deceptive words,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “The same Rouhani boasted in the past how he deceived the international community with nuclear talks, even as Iran was continuing with its nuclear program.”
In the interview, Rouhani called Israel “an occupier, a usurper government that does injustice to the people of the region,” and said it “has brought instability to the region with its war-mongering policies.”
He also said that he had “complete authority” to negotiate a nuclear deal with the United States and other Western powers, in response to Western assumptions that Iran’s nuclear programme lies in the hands of the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Netanyahu’s Office dismissed this as “spin” designed to ensure that the “centrifuges continue to spin,” and said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had determined otherwise.
“Only a combination of stopping uranium enrichment, removing all enriched uranium, dismantling the nuclear facility at Qom and stopping the plutonium track will constitute a real halt to the nuclear program,” it said. “Until these four steps are taken, the international community needs to intensify the pressure on Iran.
‘’The real test lies in the Iranian regime’s actions, not words,” said Netanyahu in the statement.
“While Rouhani sits down for interviews, he also continues to move ahead with the nuclear program,” he added.
“The Iranian regime’s goal is to reach a deal that would require it to give up an insignificant part of its nuclear program, while allowing it to … charge forward quickly toward acquiring a nuclear weapon whenever it chooses.”
The Iranian President, who was elected in August to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, didn’t say ‘yes or no’ when asked by the journalist whether Israel should be wiped off the map – one of Ahmadinejad’s favourite comments- and didn’t respond directly when asked whether, like his predecessor, he believed the Holocaust was a ‘’myth.’’ He said he was “not a historian, but a politician.”
‘’Rouhani like Ahmadinejad, was not prepared to recognize the existence of the Holocaust. One doesn’t need to be a historian to recognize the existence of the Holocaust; you have to be human,” Netanyahu said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Rouhani delivered some positive-sounding rhetoric in the NBC interview but “actions are more important than words.”
Both Rouhani and Obama will be attending the UN General Assembly in New York next week. This fuelled speculation that the two leaders might have an encounter of some type. Carney however said no meeting is scheduled.
Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet the US President in New York on 30 September and he is expected to address the annual United Nations General Assembly the following day.
He said that he will use both occasions to highlight the urgency to halting Iran’s nuclear development.
At the last cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu gave an overview outlined four conditions which he said must be met “to stop Iran’s nuclear programme”: Halting all uranium enrichment, removing all enriched uranium, closing the uranium enrichment facility at Qo and stopping the plutonium track which is being pursued at the Arak reactor.
Netanyahu urged the international community that “until all four of these measures are achieved, the pressure on Iran must be increased and not relaxed, and certainly not eased.”