Benjamin Netanyahu heralds US withdrawal from Iran deal as ‘historic move’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States fro the Iran deal as a “historic move”.

He said leaving the Iran deal unchanged would be “a recipe for disaster, a disaster for our region, a disaster for the peace of the world”.

President Donald Trump announced pulling out of the landmark international nuclear accord with Iran on Tuesday.

“The United States does not make empty threats,” he said in a televised address from the White House.

In his remarks, Mr Trump blasted the deal as “defective at its core”.

As evidence, he cited documents recently released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a leading critic of the deal.

Mr Netanyahu unveiled documents seized by Israeli intelligence showing Iran had attempted to develop a nuclear bomb in the previous decade, especially before 2003. Although he gave no explicit evidence that Iran violated the deal, he said Iran had clearly lied in the past and could not be trusted. Iran has denied ever pursuing nuclear arms.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he was sending his foreign minister to the countries remaining in the accord but warned there was only a short time to negotiate with them and his country could soon “start enriching uranium more than before”.

Mr Netanyahu is a leading critic of the deal, saying it did not contain sufficient safeguards to prevent Iran from reaching nuclear-weapons capability or address Iran’s other activities across the region.

He said Iran’s aggression has grown since the deal, especially in Syria, where he says it is “trying to establish military bases to attack Israel”.

Earlier, Israel’s military said forces were on high alert and ordered bomb shelters open in the Golan Heights after spotting “irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria”.