Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the Iranian President Hassan Rowhani is deceiving the West with his vows to not develop nuclear weapons, Israel Hayom reports.
"The Iranians are spinning stories in the media so that the centrifuges can keep on spinning," Netanyahu said in a statement. "The true test is not in Rowhani's words, but in the actions taken but the Iranian regime, which—while Rowhani is giving interviews—continues to push its nuclear program."
President Barack Obama told ABC’s This Week that he and Rowhani have been exchanging letters.
Israel Hayom reports:
Netanyahu went on to say that Iran's objective was to strike a deal obligating them to give up an inconsequential part of its nuclear program, while allowing them to move ahead with other activities that would enable quick assembly of a nuclear weapon should they decide to do so. The prime minister also reiterated Israel's demands of Iran: a complete halt to uranium enrichment, removal of enriched uranium from the country, decommission of the underground enrichment facility at Qom and an end to any efforts to use plutonium to produce a nuclear bomb. "Until these conditions are met, the international community must intensify its pressure on Iran," he said. […]
On Wednesday, Rouhani vowed that his county was not planning to develop weapons of mass destruction, telling NBC News in Tehran that "We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb and we are not going to do so. We have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever."
The Iranian president went on to blame Israel for the ills of the Middle East, saying, "Israel is an illegal regime of occupation, which is doing an injustice to the region. It has brought about [regional] instability with its warmongering policies."