Prime Minister Netanyahu: Secretary Hammond, I'd like to welcome you back to Jerusalem.

I want to once again express Israel's solidarity with the people of Britain following last month's deadly terrorist attacks against British tourists in Tunisia. This was so close to the tenth anniversary of the 7/7 murderous attacks in London.

Both our countries continue to face the terrorism of militant Islam, led by Iran and ISIS. Iran remains the world's preeminent sponsor of terrorism. Iran's terrorist activities encompass over 30 countries, across five continents.

The deal agreed to in Vienna, I regret to say, paves this terrorist regime's path to the bomb. The alternative to this bad deal is not war. The alternative is a better deal that would roll back Iran's military nuclear program and tie the easing of restrictions on Iran's nuclear program to changes in Iran's behavior.

That's the kind of deal that would be welcomed in Tel Aviv and here in Israel's capital, Jerusalem. Israel would embrace a good deal that would compel Iran to choose between a path to the bomb and sanctions relief.

Unfortunately, the current deal allows Iran to avoid making that choice. It lifts the sanctions today and paves a path to the bomb tomorrow. That's not a triumph for diplomacy, but a failure of diplomacy. And this failure threatens the survival of Israel, the security of our Arab neighbors and the peace of the world.
             
See, the Iran deal in Vienna grants Iran not one, but two paths to the bomb. Iran can get to the bomb by cheating and overcoming a porous inspections mechanism, as did North Korea. Or it can get the bomb by keeping the deal, because the deal allows Iran in about a decade to have a much greater number of even faster, more effective centrifuges than they have today. This will able Iran to have the capacity to produce the enriched uranium for an entire nuclear arsenal with zero breakout time. And 10 years go by in the blink of an eye. In the meantime, the sanctions relief offered by the deal will inject hundreds of billions of dollars into Iran's coffers. This money will bankroll Iran's aggression in the region and its terrorism worldwide.

Mr. Secretary,

Israel has no territorial dispute with Iran. In fact, we have no dispute with Iran. Yet, since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has funded, trained, armed and dispatched terrorists responsible for murdering hundreds of Israelis and Jews throughout the world. And Iran further says that Israel must be annihilated, must be wiped off the face of the earth.

So, Mr. Secretary, Israelis know better than anyone else the cost of permanent conflict with Iran. And it is wrong to suggest that Israel wants such an outcome. We seek a genuine and effective diplomatic solution. But Israelis also know exactly what would happen if we ever let our guard down. The result of that would be truly permanent.

So it's evident, Mr. Secretary, that we may not agree on everything. But as friends and allies, we can respectfully disagree.

I look forward to our discussions on this issue, on the issue of advancing peace and security with our Palestinian neighbors and on forging better bilateral ties between Israel and Britain. And in that spirit, I welcome you here to Jerusalem.

Foreign Secretary Hammond: Thank you Prime Minister and I am pleased to be here with you in Israel again. And thank you for your condolences over the atrocity in Tunisia a couple of weeks ago.

I know that we will have some frank and possibly difficult discussions this afternoon but that is what close friends and allies do.

The issues that you've raised in your introductory remarks are issues of the utmost importance for Israel, I understand that. They are also vital to the security of the UK and to the stability that we seek in this region. That is why I and my fellow E3+3 foreign ministers have spent months in detailed intensive negotiations to make progress on one of the principle threats to peace and security in this region. And after more than a decade of tough negotiations we have an agreement that secures our fundamental aim of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA will have the access and the intrusive monitoring it needs to verify adherence to the restrictions placed on Iran's nuclear program, giving the international community confidence that the program will be exclusively peaceful. We would not have agreed to the deal unless we were sure we had robust measures in place to deliver effective oversight of Iran's nuclear program. Our focus now will be on swift and full implementation of the agreement, to make sure that a nuclear weapon remains beyond Iran's reach.

Prime Minister, I know that you disagree fundamentally with the way we have approached this issue. But we believe that removing the threat of an Iranian bomb, which we are confident this agreement does, while allowing Iran to re-engage with the  international community, is the best, an perhaps the only way, to build over time the trust that will allow a dialogue on the many other issues we have with Iran.

And let me be clear: You said we will lift the sanctions today. We will not lift any sanctions today. All of the sanctions relief in this agreement is conditional upon Iran having first met the requirements on it to reduce its stockpiles, to dismantle centrifuges, to export its stocks of enriched uranium.

We have no illusions about Iran's role in the region, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't act to tackle the threat of nuclear proliferation. Just as we have disputes with Russia in respect of its actions in Ukraine, yet we have worked together with Russia on this deal with Iran. And an isolated Iran dominated by hard-liners will not change its behavior in the region. We have to seize the opportunity that this agreement represents to seek to modify Iranian regional interference as Iran starts to re-engage with the international community and to have a bigger stake itself in regional stability.

Despite our very different view on the agreement, I urge Israel to work with the UK and the E3+3, to ensure that it is fully implemented and effectively monitored. That is the best way for all of us to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.

You know, Prime Minister, that the UK's commitment to Israel\'s security is unshakeable. Prime Minister Cameron and I have been absolutely clear in our rejection of those who call for boycotts or try to delegitimize Israel. You know that we have stood up for Israel's right to defend itself at the most difficult moments and in the face of growing public disquiet at home. The effort we invest together in strengthening our relationship in trade, investment, science and technology, as well as working together on counter-terrorism is evidence of our determination that those who wish to undermine it will not succeed. The UK is also clear that there can be no place for anti-Semitism in our society, and we are taking firm action to tackle it wherever it appears.

I visited Israel almost exactly a year ago, in the midst of the Gaza conflict. We were then, we are now, and we will remain a staunch ally of Israel. But one year on, there is an urgent need for progress towards a lasting peace settlement. Without such progress there is a risk that Israel's standing with public opinion around the world will decline further. That is a concern for me and a concern for all friends of Israel. I look forward to discussing with you, Mr. Prime Minister, how the prospects for peace with the Palestinians can be advanced even in these difficult times. We need both sides to avoid actions that diminish trust and make the prospect of peace more remote. I welcome the measures that Israel has taken since the conflict to support Gaza, but it is vital that this initiative continues and accelerates.

Prime Minister, I know that this is a difficult and challenging agenda at a time of continuing turmoil in the region. It is imperative that our two countries work closely together to address it, and I look forward to a constructive discussion with you this afternoon.

PM Netanyahu: Thank you. Foreign Secretary, I want to express my appreciation for the position that your government has taken against anti-Semitism and the attacks against our people. And yet, here is Iran, that four days before the signing of the agreement in Vienna, has rallies presided over by the president, the so-called moderate president of Iran, in which they call, the crowds chant “Death to Israel,” burn Israeli flags.

A few days before the signing of the agreement, Iran says that the destruction of Israel is non-negotiable. And this continues after the agreement. So the question I have is, would it not make sense for your government and the other powers of the P5+1 to 1) condemn powerfully this expression of anti-Semitism, this desire to annihilate the Jewish state, and to demand that Iran cease and desist such genocidal calls and actions, as part of your ongoing campaign of antisemitism. And this is exactly… your ongoing campaign against antisemitism.

I think this is the thing that we find especially perplexing. It cannot be than an unreformed, unrepentant Iran that seeks continuously to wipe us off the map, dispatches killers to kill our people, and not only our people, neighboring states as well who share our concern, is given the sanctions relief, is given the removal of limitations on its nuclear program without changing its genocidal policies against Israel, its terrorist activities in the region and beyond the region, its commitment to exporting the Islamic revolution throughout the world. If I had to put it in a nutshell, that's our concern.

We would have wanted to see a deal that says the following: Iran, you will get the easing on the restrictions on your nuclear program, and you will get sanctions relief if you change your behavior first. In fact, there is no requirement for any change of behavior on the part of Iran which is what makes this deal so fundamentally flawed. And that's a subject I'd like to discuss with you further upstairs if I may.

Secretary Hammond: Well, I'm looking forward to that discussion Mr. Prime Minister.

If I may just respond briefly, I understand your concerns but we have always been clear that this deal was about the nuclear file, the sanctions regime is around Iran's illegal nuclear activities. And, in those demonstrations you referred to, we also heard chants of "Death to America and death to Britain". We will judge Iran not by the chants of the crowds on the streets of Tehran but by the actions of its government and their agents around the region. And we are not naïve about this; we understand that our many disputes with Iran about its regional conduct will remain, and will have to be dealt with in the months and years to come.

We have reasserted, the United States has reasserted our commitment to stand by our regional allies and partners and to resist interference in their internal affairs.

We have not settled every dispute we have with Iran by settling the nuclear file. But by removing the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon, we have allowed ourselves to move on to the next stage.
And we look forward to cooperating with you in ensuring that we can successfully implement this agreement and then continue to work to prevent Iranian destabilization in the region.

Netanyahu: On the contrary! They openly call for our destruction and they work for our destruction, which is very different from just a declaration. They surround us with missiles; they try to target us with hundreds of thousands of missiles, thousands of which have already been fired on us, Iranian missiles, so it's not just a declaration.

But the interesting thing is here, that while you give them sanctions relief, you're not merely addressing, I think in a flawed way, they're nuclear file. What you're doing is also giving them hundreds of billions of dollars which they can fuel unrestricted into their war machine, into their terror activities.

That is the problem that I think accompanies this agreement. And I know from speaking to many Arab leaders that this is what concerns them as well. And my only advice is, it doesn't happen very often, certainly hasn't happened in my lifetime - when Arabs, many Arabs and Israelis agree, I think it's worth paying attention.

Our fate is most immediately affected by this deal, and the fact that this unreformed Iran gets hundreds of billions of dollars into its coffers right away, or very soon, won't take long for the sanctions relief to take place, I think raises questions for us, whether in fact what we'll get is more terrorism, more aggression, more subversion, rather than the opposite.