“If Iran continues unabated they will have nuclear weapons in a decade,” said Netanyahu.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFUpdated: DECEMBER 7, 2017 02:51 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference
Israel won’t allow Iran to establish a military base in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he called on the world to halt Iran’s development of ballistic missiles, nuclear power and its support of global terrorism.“We have to act now against Iran,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday afternoon at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference.These comments come the same week that Israeli forces allegedly executed two air strikes against Syria, including one on an Iranian military base and the other on a Syrian military research center.“We will not let them establish themselves in Syria,” Netanyahu said. “We mean what we say and we say what we mean,” he added.During his short talk, his only scheduled English address for the day, he did not address US President Donald Trump's pending recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Instead he used the stage to urge the diplomats in the room to send a “cable” to their governments urging more pressure on Iran with regard to human rights and halting Iran’s nuclear capacity.He asked the diplomats to support efforts by the US and Israel to create a series of safeguards around the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that addresses flaws in the agreement that would allow Iran to quickly become a nuclear power once it ends.“If Iran continues unabated they will have nuclear weapons in a decade,” he said.Tehran is also developing an intercontinental ballistic missile with global reach, Netanyahu said.He pointed to a map of the world, including the Middle East, with countries under Iranian influence in black, to show how it was slowly taking over the region, creating a “land bridge’ reaching to the Mediterranean sea.
Hamas and Hezbollah would “not last a day without Iran,” Netanyahu said.To the diplomats he added, protect “the flames of liberty and the flames of progress.”