Netanyahu Welcomes Failure to Reach Iran Nuclear Deal in Vienna

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday welcomed the failure of the nuclear negotiations with Iran to reach an agreement, saying that "it's extremely important" that the agreement Iran had pushed for had been avoided.

Iran and the P5+1 nations (the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany) agreed on Monday, after a marathon round of talks, to extend the deadline for reaching an agreement on Iran's nuclear program until June 30, 2015.

"The fact that there's no deal now gives [the P5+1 nations] the opportunity to continue the economic pressures that have proven to be the only thing that have brought Iran to the table; to continue them, to toughen them," Netanyahu said.

Interviewed by the BBC, Netanyahu said that the best deal would be to "dismantle [Iran's] capacity to make atomic bombs and only then dismantle sanctions." But seeing that sort of deal was not in the offing, the prime minister said, "this result is better. A lot better."

Iran, Netanyahu said, "should not have any capacity to enrich uranium. There's no reason to enrich if you're not developing an atomic bomb."

As proof of Iran's intention to develop an atomic bomb, the prime minister pointed to what he said was its development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. "What do you do with such missiles?" he asked. "The only reason you build ICBMs is to launch a nuclear warhead."

From the start, the negotiating powers should have taken the position that Iran "shouldn't have the capacity to either enrich uranium or deliver atomic bombs," the premier said. The reason they didn't take that approach, he added, was "because they say it offends Iranian pride."

"So what?" he said scornfully. "If this position was taken in the 1930s, it would have offended German pride – but it would have saved millions and millions of lives."

Netanyahu concluded the BBC interview by describing the Iranian government as a "medievalist regime," one that throws acid in the faces of women, oppresses gays, subjugates entire populations and exports terrorism far and wide. "Don't give these medievalists atomic bombs," he said.

The prime minister assured Israelis that the government "will continue our struggle to ensure that Iran does not become a threshold nuclear country... Israel will continue to defend itself using its own resources. We are following the nuclear talks with Iran closely and letting our views be known directly, via my contacts with the American administration and other heads of government."