Netanyahu: Fight ISIS, But Don't Neglect Iran
As the Obama administration gears up to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning on the anniversary of 9/11: Don't neglect the nuclear threat posed by Iran.
Speaking at an international terrorism conference in the Israeli coastal city of Herzliya, Netanyahu repeated his admonition that Israel is a front-line particpant in a much wider war that includes the Western world.
"Al Qaeda is on our border in the Golan Heights, Hezbollah is in the north, and ISIS is coming closer from both the east and the north," Netanyahu said. "And they all have one common goal. The goal is: establish a new Islamist dominion, first in the Middle East and in their warped thinking, throughout the world."
But while he praised the United States for trying to lead an international coalition to fight the various terror groups, Netanyahu singled out Iran as a terrorist-sponsoring nation-state that has created the added danger of a nuclear weapons program.
"All you have to imagine is what would have happened on 9/11 if al Qaeda had nuclear weapons. You know they would have used them against New York and against Washington. It's unassailable. Once they have massive power, they will unleash all their violence," Netanyahu said.
He cautioned against the U.S. and Western powers allowing a bad weapons deal with Tehran, predicting that Iran's leaders will kick out nuclear inspectors when the time is right.
A nuclear Iran would lead to a "tremendous pivot" in world history and our civilization would see things "that you never imagined could be possible. Horrors that you cannot even contemplate (would) come to fruition. The ultimate terror. A terrorist regime with the greatest terror of them all," he said.
Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz brought the same message to Washington this week when he arrived for talks on the Iran nuclear issue.
"(ISIS) is a five-year problem. A nuclear Iran is a 50-year problem," Steinitz said Wednesday.
Netanyahu said he believes that Israel and the West will eventually defeat its adversaries.
"I'm confident that militant Islam will perish but we shall not let anyone perish with it before it goes down," he said.
