Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Tuesday, 30 June 2015), met with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentilloni and said at the start of their meeting:
"Our relationship is intact. It's going forward. It also reflects our common understanding that we live in a very tough neighborhood. Israel has to defend itself against the forces of terror. These forces committed three atrocities, three countries in three continents in one day just two days ago. And we are all under attack.
When I look around, I think what we need to do is to have unequivocal condemnation of the terrorists and their sponsors. The greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world is Iran.
Iran was just confirmed as a preeminent state sponsor of terrorism in a US State Department report. It also confirmed the continual abuse of human rights in Iran under the present government. Executions are up; imprisonments are up; the harassment of gays, minorities and others; the violation of human rights continues unabashedly in Iran under Rouhani and continues all the time outside Iran in the attacks, in the attempts at conquest, in the proxy wars that Iran is supporting, and in the global terror network that Iran is conducting in over 30 countries with its henchmen, Hezbollah, and directly through its own agents.
We believe that it is a fundamental mistake to enable such a terrorist regime to get to nuclear weapons, which is what the proposed agreement will give them. It will give them a definite pathway to nuclear bombs – not a bomb, but nuclear bombs. It will also replenish their coffers with many billions, actually perhaps up to hundreds of billions of dollars, to enable them to continue their terrorism and aggression. This is something that is wrong. It is dangerous. It is dangerous for Israel, for Italy, for Europe, for the United States, for the world.
The world is properly concerned and aghast at the violence and savagery of ISIS. No one would dream of allowing the Islamic State of ISIS to have nuclear weapons. Why would anyone consider giving the Islamic State of Iran, which is a lot more powerful than ISIS and acts with much greater power than ISIS to have additional power of nuclear weapons? That's a mistake. The Islamic State of Iran, the foremost sponsor of international terrorism, should not have access to nuclear weapons.
We need a better deal. This deal should not pass."