Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday opened his weekly cabinet meeting with a reference to the change in US policy vis-a-vis Iran and called upon the countries of the world to take advantage of the opportunity created by Trump to change the nuclear agreement.
Netanyahu told his ministers: “It is absolutely clear, if we examine this agreement, that if nothing changes, Iran will have an arsenal of nuclear weapons within a few years. The agreement does not stop this. It creates a guaranteed path to create an enrichment system that can bring Iran to a rapid injection into dozens of atom bombs, even beyond that, and therefore the decision is so important. ”
“President Trump’s decision,” Netanyahu noted, “created an opportunity to amend the nuclear agreement and to stop the growing Iranian aggression in our region. I believe that every responsible government, and anyone who wants to promote peace and security in the world, should take advantage of the opportunity that President Trump’s decision created, in order to improve the agreement or cancel it, and of course to stop the Iranian aggression as well.”
“Of course, the president’s decision to impose sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards must be supported as well,” Netanyahu said, noting that “the Revolutionary Guards are a central arm of Iran to spread terror in the world and of course to spread its aggression in the Middle East. ”
Under US law, every 90 days the President must inform Congress of the extent to which Iran has fulfilled its part of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Should the President announce that Iran had failed to fulfill its obligations, the declaration will trigger a 60-day period during which Congress would have to decide whether to re-impose US sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
If Congress does that, it will undermine a central pillar in the agreement, namely US participation – and Iran has already made it clear that in such a case it would view itself as being exempt from carrying out its obligations.
