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Iranian nuclear issue should have solution similar to Syrian - Israel PM

WASHINGTON, July 14, /ITAR-TASS/. The Iranian nuclear issue should have a solution similar to the scheme of liquidation of arsenals of chemical weapons in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

He stated on the American TV channels CBS and Fox that Iran is certainly making nuclear weapons and its delivery means in the form of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

“Iran has invested an untold fortune, certainly over $100 billion, probably close to $200 billion in building ICBMs (PH), which are only used for nuclear weapons and building underground nuclear facilities for nuclear weapons,” he said.

“And enrichment, Iranian enrichment and centrifuges that are only for nuclear weapons and plutonium and heavy water, that is only for nuclear weapons. If they wanted civilian nuclear energy, they wouldn't need any of that. 17 nations have civilian nuclear energy and they don't have a single centrifuge,” Netanyahu noted. “So Iran is lying, that's a straightforward lie. Second point is that I think that the capability to make these weapons is what's at issue right now, that's what's being negotiated as we speak in Vienna.”

He urged the UN Security Council five permanent members and Germany (P5+1) not to make a “bad deal” with Iran to settle the crisis around Tehran’s nuclear research.

“And I think the crucial thing is not to trust Iran; I think nobody in his right mind would, and not to inspect Iran that's secondary and largely immaterial,” he said.

He said that Russia and the United States did not tell Syrian President Bashar Assad that he could preserve chemical agents and means for their turning into chemical weapons in the conditions of inspectors’ work. The agreement on Syria envisaged the elimination of these materials and technical capacities, Netanyahu said. He stressed that this was a good deal. “The crucial question is to deny Iran the capability to make the nuclear weapons that they seek, and that means taking the enriched nuclear material and the means to enrich it and to make a bomb, to take it out of Iran, just as it was done vis-·-vis the chemicals and the means to make chemical weapons out of Syria.”

“That's the deal that should be done, any other deal would be a bad deal, and it's much better to have no deal than a bad deal,” Netanyahu noted.

The Israeli prime minister also accused Iran of arming, financing and training of the HAMAS and Islamic Jihad movements. He said that Iran is not even a terrorist state, but a terrorist empire.