US president says that nuclear deal does not mean that Washington will turn a blind eye to Iran's support for terrorism and proxies that destabilize the Middle East.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: JULY 21, 2015 21:05Obama on Iran: We can't let them off the hook
US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that despite the nuclear deal signed last week with Iran, the US would not be letting Tehran "off the hook" for its continued support of terrorism and its human rights violations.Speaking at the annual conference of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Pittsburgh, Obama said that even with the reaching of a nuclear deal with Tehran "we'll continue to have serious differences with the Iranian government."Obama said that the US would not turn a blind eye to the Islamic Republic's "support of terrorism and proxies that destabilize the Middle East."He vowed that the United States' sanctions on Iran for its "support for terrorism and its ballistic missile program and its human rights violations, those sanctions will remain in place."Amid criticism of the deal from Jerusalem and Arab capitals in the Middle East, Obama said that Washington would continue to stand "with allies and partners, including Israel to oppose Iran's dangerous behavior."Obama's comments came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to speak out against the deal with Iran on Tuesday. Speaking during a meeting with visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had met earlier in the day with visiting US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, telling him that the nuclear deal signed between world powers and Iran poses a threat to Israel and the Middle East, and, will eventually threaten Europe and the world.Netanyahu: Israel and Europe are threatened by the same forcesHe warned that under the terms of the deal, Iran could break out to "dozens of nuclear bombs in zero time in a decade or so."Almost immediately Iran will be given hundreds of billions of dollars to bankroll its support for terrorism and proxies such as Hezbollah, he added.Netanyahu repeated his assertion that the deal with Iran is a "historic mistake." He rejected the idea that the whole world supports the deal, pointing out that many Arab states have come out against the agreement in addition to Israel.Even if the whole world did support the deal, the whole world has been wrong before, Netanyahu said, citing the example of the nuclear deal signed with North Korea that had failed to stop Pyongyang from obtaining nuclear weapons.