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Netanyahu: New Iranian President's Strategy: Smile and Build a Bomb

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the nuclear threat Iran poses at length Sunday on "Face The Nation" and accused president-elect Hassan Rowhani of being a "wolf in sheep's clothing" who will "smile and build a bomb."

Netanyahu urged the U.S. to emphatically enforce prevention of Iran gaining nuclear capabilities, saying Iran is getting "closer and closer to the bomb" and that he would do anything necessary to prevent the world's only Jewish state from annihilation:

BOB SCHIEFFER: There are reports that you feel the United States has been too patient, a little too tolerant in dealing with the Iranians. Are you asking United States to take a harder line?

NETANYAHU: I think we've spoken many times, President Obama and I about the need to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. I know that is the U.S. policy. What is important to convey to them, especially after the elections, that that policy will not change and that it will be backed up by increasingly forceful sanctions and military action. In my view, there is a new president in Iran. He believes -- he's criticizing his predecessor for being a wolf in wolf's clothing. His strategy is be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Smile and build a bomb. He brags about the fact that he talked to the Europeans while completing a nuclear conversion plan. I think they can't be allowed to get away with it. They're getting closer and closer to the bomb, and they have to be told in no uncertain terms that will not be allowed to happen. I think it's important to understand that we cannot allow it to happen. You know, our clocks are ticking at a different pace. We're closer than the United States. We're more vulnerable and therefore we'll have to address this question of how to stop Iran, perhaps before the United States does. But as the Prime Minister of Israel, I'm determined to do whatever is necessary to defend my country, the one and only Jewish state from the regime that threatens us with renewed annihilation.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Rowhani was on the special Iranian government committee that plotted the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. He also had a record of deceiving the West in nuclear negotiations to buy Iranian scientists more time to resolve uranium issues.