Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saluted President Donald Trump's "courageous decision" to decertify Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal on Friday, saying that if the agreement was unchanged Iran would wind up with an "arsenal" of nuclear weapons.
"I congratulate President Trump for his courageous decision today," Netanyahu said in a prepared video statement. "He boldly confronted Iran's terrorist regime. If the Iran deal is left unchanged, one thing is absolutely certain. In a few years' time, the world's foremost terrorist regime will have an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and that's a tremendous danger for our collective future."
"President Trump has just created an opportunity to fix this bad deal, to roll back Iran's aggression, and to confront its criminal support of terrorism. That's why Israel embraces this opportunity, and that's why every responsible government and any person concerned with the peace and security of the world should do so as well."
Netanyahu has been an outspoken opponent of the nuclear deal since it first began to be brokered due to Iran's threats toward Israel, leading to sharp tensions between him and the Obama administration.
The relationship between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu bottomed out in 2015 when Netanyahu was invited by Republicans to address a joint session of Congress about his concerns. Netanyahu said the agreement "paved" Iran's path to a nuclear bomb.
Trump announced he would not certify Iran's compliance with the agreement on Friday and warned he could eventually terminate it if its flaws were not addressed by Congress. In remarks at the White House, he laid out a new approach toward addressing Iran's terror sponsorship, nuclear activity and ballistic missile programs.
"We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout," Trump said.