Minister Katz, ‘PM must demand of Trump’ to keep his word on Iran

Minister warned that Iran must never be allowed to have nuclear weapons, claims US must not be allowed to shy away from working with Russia regarding Syria.

By HAGAY HACOHEN
Updated: SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 18:38
Minister Yisrael Katz speaking at ICT (photo credit: KFIR BOLOTIN/ICT)
Minister Yisrael Katz speaking at ICT
(photo credit: KFIR BOLOTIN/ICT)
Minister Yisrael Katz and Minister Naftali Bennet revealed new Iranian threats to Israeli security.
“The prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] must demand from [US] President [Donald] Trump to freeze, change, or cancel the Iranian Nuclear agreement” said Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz on Monday during his speech at the Institute for Counter Terrorism's 17th annual conference.
“[Iran] must never be allowed to progress [into having] nuclear weapons”, said the minister, “[Trump should do] as he promised to do”
 ‘This is one of the worst agreements ever’, said Katz, ‘just as Trump had said.’
Katz also told the audience that the current Syrian government and the Islamic Republic of Iran are working out a long-term agreement that will make the Iranian military presence in Syria a permanent one. The agreement is similar to the one the Assad regime created with Russia.
The minister warned that, should the Iranian presence in Syria, be allowed to stabilize – the next step could be Iranian naval, army and air force bases on Syrian soil, with foot soldiers from Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria swelling up in numbers into tens of thousands, all with the sole purpose of ‘combating Israel’.
Katz advised the US leader to learn from the North Korean example. ‘[When one] speaks and compromises with dictatorships set on obtaining nuclear capacities instead of acting decisively, [this leads to] boundary-crossing and norms being changed,’ he stressed.
Katz did say however that the Israeli government must not let the US backpedal from its role to work ‘alongside Russia’ – hinting that the Israeli government is fully aware that the Russian Federation had set camp on Israel’s northern border for the time being.
Education Minister Naftali Bennet addressed the audience and said that an Iranian Islamic Republic with nuclear capacities is ‘the only existential threat Israel faces, it is much more [of a threat] then Hamas or Hezbollah’.
The minister reminded his listeners that Iran is a huge country in comparison with Israel, which means that, while it is possible to annihilate Israel with a nuclear offense, an Israeli nuclear reaction [if one is an option] would hurt Iran deeply – but it will not annihilate the Iranian people or make their entire country into a radioactive wasteland.
‘We did not bring the Jewish people from their various countries around the globe to serve as a target to a nuclear [warhead] attack’, said the minister.