PM: Iran’s leaders guided by unbelievable fanaticism

In "Meet the Press" interview preview, Netanyahu comments on Iranian rationality and why containment will not work.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Netanyahu Meet the Press NBC (370) (photo credit: Screenshot)
Netanyahu Meet the Press NBC (370)
(photo credit: Screenshot)
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”, due to air on Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says Iran's leaders are guided by "unbelievable fanaticism" and warned American policymakers that containment will not work against a nuclear Iran.
“I wouldn't rely on their rationality,” he stated.
“Since the advent of nuclear weapons, you have countries that had access to nuclear weapons who always made a careful calculation of cost and benefit," he said.

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"Iran has a very different zealotry about their survival, there are suicide bombers all over the place," Netanyahu continued.
"It’s the same fanaticism that you see storming your embassies today,” Netanyahu added, in an apparent reference to the wave of violent protests at American embassies in the Muslim world. “You want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?”
He went on to comment that if anyone thought Iran having nuclear capability would work to stabilize the Middle East, that they would set a "new standard for human stupidity." Netanyahu's comments come in the wake of reported friction between the US and Israel over Iran.
US President Barack Obama told 1,200 American rabbis Friday via a conference call that he was not willing to impose a “set of conditions” on how he would handle Iran – according to participants on the call.
On Friday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad also commented upon the US-Israel relationship, stating that US decision-makers have already come to the understanding that the Zionist regime is “no longer beneficial to them.”
He added that the Zionists are seeking new ways to "disturb the game," Iranian state-run Fars News Agency reported.