Netanyahu criticized the IAEA for surrendering to pressure from Iran after the IAEA closed some of it’s investigations into Iran’s nuclear program.
(photo credit: AMIT SHABI/POOL)
The attack at the Egyptian border on Saturday that left three Israeli soldiers dead is “severe and unusual” and will be “fully investigated”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the Israeli cabinet’s weekly meeting on Sunday morning.
“Israel passed a clear message to the Egyptian government: We expect the joint investigation to be comprehensive and thorough. This is part of the important security cooperation between us that has benefited both countries for years. We will derive the necessary conclusions regarding our activity at the Southern border,” the prime minister said.
“The fence, which was built in 2013, slowed the flood of illegal infiltrators into Israel. But there is still smuggling, and from time to time attempts by terrorists to cross the border and harm our forces,” Netanyahu said.
“We will refresh the guidelines, the operative methods and means, in order to reduce to a minimum the smuggling and ensure that such tragic attacks do not repeat themselves,” the prime minister added.
Netanyahu: Iran continues to lie to the IAEA
“Iran continues to lie to the IAEA,” Netanyahu said after Iran announced a “deal” last Tuesday over the closing of some of the IAEA’s probes into its nuclear program, including a February finding of uranium enriched to the 84% level at the Fordow facility, as well as into the undeclared Marivan/Abadeh nuclear site.
“We revealed information to the world when we brought Iran’s secret nuclear archive to Israel five years ago, that showed unequivocally that Iran was violating oversight agreements, and is acting in the nuclear field for military purposes and not innocent civilian purposes,” the prime minister said.
“The excuses that Iran provided in the years since then for the existence of nuclear material in prohibited places are not only untrustworthy, they are technically impossible.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“The excuses that Iran provided in the years since then for the existence of nuclear material in prohibited places are not only untrustworthy, they are technically impossible. The IAEA’s weak conduct facing these failing excuses gives the message to the rulers of Iran that they do not have to pay a price for their violations, and can continue to deceive the international community in their attempt to obtain nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu added.
Israel’s alliance with the United States remains strong
“If the IAEA turns into a political organization, there is no meaning to its oversight activity in Iran, and there will be no meaning to the reports it puts out about Iran’s nuclear activity.
“In any case, Israel under our leadership is not standing by. We are stating our opinions forcefully in public and behind closed doors. Our alliance with the United States is as strong as ever, and the military and intelligence cooperation between Israel and the United States has reached unprecedented levels,” the prime minister said.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post