Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday said Iran has crossed all nuclear “red lines” and vowed to stop the country from acquiring nuclear weapons — even if it means Israel must act alone.
TheHill reported: “Iran’s nuclear weapons program is at a critical point. All red lines have been crossed,” Bennett said in his first speech to the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly, according to Reuters.
“Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning,” Bennett added, vowing that Israel “will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.” Reuters stated that the U.N. ambassador for Iran, which has denied seeking a nuclear bomb, rejected Bennett’s speech as “full of lies.”
Bennett, a far-right politician who opposes Palestinian statehood, also drew an angry Palestinian reaction after he failed to mention the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bennett, who ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year run as prime minister in June, wants U.S. President Joe Biden to harden his stance against Iran, Israel’s regional archfoe.
He opposes U.S. efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, abandoned in 2018. Indirect U.S.-Iran talks in Vienna have stalled as Washington awaits the next move by Iran’s new hard-line president, Ebrahim Raisi.
