Netanyahu: Nuclear deal hasn't stopped Iran's support for terror

PM before meeting visiting Bulgarian counterpart, said that terrorism does not happen in a vacuum, but rather with the help and incitement from other countries and governing bodies.

By HERB KEINON
Updated: FEBRUARY 26, 2016 02:27
Netanyahu on Iran aid to Palestinian 'martyrs': Nuclear deal hasn't stopped support for terror
Post-nuclear-agreement Iran offers financial rewards for terrorism, something that the world must firmly condemn, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Netanyahu, before meeting with visiting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, said that terrorism does not happen in a vacuum, but rather with help and incitement from countries and governing bodies.
“Yesterday Iran announced that it will finance the families of the terrorists and murderers,” Netanyahu said. He added that this shows that Iran after the nuclear agreement is continuing to assist Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorism.
“This is something that the nations of the world must confront and condemn, and assist Israel – and other countries, of course – in repelling,” he said.
Secondly, Netanyahu continued, the recent round of stabbings by Palestinian youth is also not happening in a vacuum.
“It comes from the Palestinian education system, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
Netanyahu pointed out that IDF Capt. (res.) Eliav Gelman died on Wednesday during an attack not by “the students of terrorism, but by those who teach terrorism – a Palestinian teacher.” Gelman’s assailant was a 26-year-old math teacher from al-Majd, west of Dura.
“The world needs to stand with Israel against this incitement, which is the No. 1 cause of terrorism,” he said.
Borissov, during comments he made before the meeting, said that the two countries cooperate in the security and counterterrorism spheres.
“I will not hide the fact that on many occasions we also have telephone conversations in that regard,” he said.
Security and intelligence cooperation between the two countries increased following the 2012 attack in Burgas, during which five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed.
Borissov said he was also interested in discussing with Israel “the great potential that is held by Israel in terms of the large gas reserves that have been ascertained here.”
Regardless of whether Israel decides to export its natural gas to Europe through Turkey, or Greece, Bulgaria would also be a natural export destination. Currently the country imports almost all of its gas from Russia, with which it has increasingly closer ties.
Bulgaria’s deputy prime minister in charge of economic policy, Tomislav Donchev, who accompanied Borissov, was quoted in the Bulgarian press as saying on Thursday, “We see the countries of the Mediterranean region, in particular Israel, as potential suppliers of gas to Bulgaria and Southeastern Europe.”
Netanyahu said that he and Borissov have “a close personal friendship which mirrors the close friendship between the people of Bulgaria and the people of Israel.” He noted “the heroic stance of the people of Sofia to save Jews during the dark period in the Holocaust.”
Borissov arrived on Wednesday and went to Ramallah for meetings with the PA’s President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. In the evening he met Israelis of Bulgarian descent in Jerusalem.


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