A nuclear
Iran is a global threat because it could seek to control Middle East oil, Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a stern warning he issued on Bloomberg TV
and FOX Business Network’s (FBN) on Tuesday.
“Iran, if armed with these
[nuclear] weapons, could make a bid to take over the oil in the Middle East,
they'd basically control the spigot of oil in the world,” Netanyahu told
Bloomberg TV.
“And that's going to affect the economies of the entire
world. It's not - so this is not just an Israeli problem,” he told
FBN.
He noted that Iran already had a wide reach, with presences in the
Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, Eritrea, Sudan, Africa, Lebanon, Gaza and South
America.
“It has to be dealt with by the international community, not
merely for Israel's sake but for the sake of the peace and prosperity of the
entire world,” Netanyahu told FBN.
He was pleased, he said, that US
President Barack Obama was determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear
weapons.
Netanyahu made his statements after speaking Sunday with US Vice
President Joe Biden and in advance of his meeting Thursday with US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton.
In spite of rising tensions with the US over
construction in east Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he believed that the two
countries had a very strong and close relationship.
“I think there is
fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of - the close nature between
Israel and the United States. It is so close…It is a powerful bond and
President Obama has expressed it more than once. We have had security
cooperation in the last year that people don't know about but I think has
surpassed all previous levels,” Netanyahu told FBN.
He said that the
results of the mid-term elections in the US early this month, in which
Republicans in the US House of Representatives wrested control from the
Democrats, did not change the nature of Israel’s relationship with the
US.
“Look, the outgoing Congress was friendly to Israel. The incoming
Congress is friendly to Israel. I think that is - basically that's a constant
in the relationship between Israel and the United States,” he told FBN.