Netanyahu wants Iran deal to cover missile capacity

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Iran's framework nuclear deal on 7 April saying it does not address Iran's long-range missile arsenal.

Netanyahu took to his official Twitter account and said: "Israel will not accept a deal that would allow the country that calls and works to develop weapons of destruction.

"Why doesn't the framework address Iran's intercontinental ballistic missile programme whose sole purpose is to carry nuclear payloads?

"I think this deal is a dream deal for Iran and it's a nightmare deal for the rest of the world."

Netanyahu demanded on 5 April for Iranian recognition of Israel's right to exist to be written into Iran's framework nuclear agreement.

US President Barack Obama, however, rejected the request.

Speaking to US radio network NPR, Obama said: "The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognising Israel, is really akin to saying that we won't sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms.

"And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgement.

"We want Iran not to have nuclear weapons precisely because we can't bank on the nature of the regime changing. That's exactly why we don't want to have nuclear weapons. If suddenly Iran transformed itself into Germany or Sweden or France, there would be a different set of conversations about their nuclear infrastructure."

Ephraim Halevy, a former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, told Channel One television on 7 April, reported France24 News: "I think we find ourselves in a moment of national paranoia. "t is not appropriate to our reality, our ability.

"We are the strongest country in the Middle East, and the strongest country in the Middle East should not be saying every day that it is in danger of destruction.

"Israel cannot be destroyed and it is about time that the citizens of Israel understand that, internalise it and behave appropriately."