​(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Wednesday, 3 June 2015), met with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully and told him at the start of their meeting:
 
"It's a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to you, not only about our bilateral relations, but our region, our quest for peace and security. That's difficult, because we have troubling developments. There are reports now that Iran continues to grow its nuclear stockpile as the negotiations proceed. And if you add that to their continued development of ICBMs, to their vast terror network that spans five continents, the fact that they're supporting rocket and missile attacks against us, their activities in Yemen, the fact that they violate all Security Council resolutions – that presents a serious challenge to peace and security in our place, in our region.
 
You're going to head the Security Council. I wish you a lot of luck in it. I'd say that the main thing that we have learned is that peace is achieved, as we did with Jordan and with Egypt, through direct negotiations between parties and not by fiat. It just doesn't work that way and I hope it works, but it has to work through direct negotiations and I look forward to discussing this and many other things with you."