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Netanyahu on Face the Nation: ISIS a Threat But Iran “Much More Dangerous”

In his appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday (embedded below), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded President Obama’s efforts to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but cautioned that Iran still posed a greater threat.

But if you think ISIS is dangerous, and should be defeated, as I do — and I completely support President Obama’s effort, leadership in this regard — then think how much more dangerous Iran is. Iran doesn’t have two million petrodollars a day. It has 100 million petrodollars a day.

And it has got — it is working on obtaining nuclear weapons. And that would be, I think, a pivot of history. I think it would endanger the future of our common civilization. So it should be — that should be defeated, and that should be prevented.

Netanyahu also told host Bob Schieffer that Iran should not be rewarded for fighting ISIS as it is within Iran’s own interests to do so.

As far as Assad is concerned, I think that you certainly don’t have to prop them up, and you don’t have to make a — cut a deal with them, any more than you have to cut a deal with Iran. They are going to fight ISIS anyway. You don’t have to reward them. You don’t have to reward Iran with a nuclear deal, any more than you have to reward Assad with bringing back the chemical weapons, because he is fighting these guys anyway, as Iran is fighting them anyway.

Towards the end of the interview, Schieffer asked Netanyahu what his biggest fear of a potential nuclear deal with Iran would be, to which the Prime Minister replied:

And to the extent that you take away the number of centrifuges that they will have left, it becomes a better deal. To the extent you give them thousands of centrifuges, that becomes a bad deal, a very bad deal, not merely for us in Israel but for you and for, I think, for the peace of the world.

The reportedly proposed deal Netanyahu alluded to would allow Iran to keep and merely unplug its centrifuges. This approach has been widely condemned by experts as well as by the editors of both The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune.

[Photo: IsraeliPM / YouTube ]