(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Sunday, 3 May 2015), met US Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and told him at the start of their meeting:
"I welcome you here in that spirit of friendship between Israel and the United States. That doesn't mean we don't have differences of view.
On the matter of the pending Iran deal, we view things differently. We think that the goal of the Iran deal should not be just to reach any deal. It should be to block Iran's path to the bomb. And to block Iran's path to the bomb, we need a deal that prevents Iran from having what is given to it in Lausanne.
It is given first a vast nuclear infrastructure that is not needed for civilian nuclear energy. It also gives Iran the capacity within a decade or so to have the ability to produce fuel for dozens of nuclear bombs with virtually no breakout time, and this under international legitimacy. And it also gives, fills Iran's coffers in a very short time with tens of billions of dollars to fuel its aggression and its terrorism.
So we think we need a different deal, a better deal and there are those who tell us that this will not endanger Israel. I have to tell you as the Prime Minister of Israel responsible for Israel's security, it endangers Israel, it endangers the region, it endangers the world, the entire world in my opinion. So I think it's very important to insist on a better deal."