Netanyahu: Iran wants to control Middle East oil

PM tells US television channels that Iran "has to be dealt with not merely for Israel's sake, but for the peace of the entire world."

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Netanyahu GA speech 311 (photo credit: Avi Ohayon)
Netanyahu GA speech 311
(photo credit: Avi Ohayon)
A nuclear Iran is a global threat because it could seek to control Middle East oil, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Bloomberg TV and FOX Business Network (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.
He 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.