Israel warns against agreeing on ‘dangerous’ nuclear deal with Iran

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has warned that the emerging nuclear deal with Iran confirms all Israel's fears and exceeds them.

"Even as meetings proceed on this dangerous agreement, Iran's proxies in Yemen are overrunning large sections of that country and are attempting to seize control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb straits which would affect the naval balance and the global oil supply," he told the weekly cabinet meeting.

“After the Beirut-Damascus-Baghdad axis, Iran is manoeuvring from the south to take over the entire Middle East. The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis is dangerous for mankind and must be stopped.”

Mr Netanyahu has been an outspoken opponent of the emerging deal, telling US Congress this month that a "very bad" agreement was being negotiated, in a move which angered US president Barack Obama.

Moderate regimes

Defence minister Moshe Ya’alon said that turning Iran into a nuclear threshold state “would be nothing less than a tragedy for the moderate regimes in the Middle East and the entire Western world”.

Highlighting Iranian support for the rebels in Yemen, Mr Ya'alon said that instead of being punished, Iran is getting a prize. He said: "Instead of issuing an uncompromising ultimatum to stop its support for terror – from Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the Palestinians, the Far East, Europe, Africa, and North America – the West is welcoming Iran to the family of nations through the front door.

“You don’t need to be an intelligence officer to see Iran is lying barefacedly, and is today the greatest danger to the stability of the Middle East.”

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz warned that the emerging deal was "full of holes," and that he hoped Mr Obama would keep to his word that "no deal is better than a bad deal".