Israel Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer on Monday compared the Iran nuclear agreement to a huge storm that’s threatening Israel and the entire region.
“What we see is a tornado coming at us that’s going to knock out the whole village,” Dermer said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
The Obama administration has been pressing Israel to outline what other steps it might take to put Israel at ease once the deal is implemented. But Israel continues to warn that the deal would pave Iran’s way to a nuclear bomb, and also ease the conventional weapons ban now in place against Iran.
As a result, Dermer said Israel is refusing to talk about how to cope with the deal, and instead is focused on trying to get the U.S. to reject it.
“That’s just not a discussion that we’re having right now, because we’re not talking about the day after,” he said. “People are asking, let’s have a talk about what we do after the tornado’s… gone through. We say, let’s stop the tornado from coming through.”
Dermer reiterated that Israel would prefer to see sanctions put back in place against Iran.
“Today, Iran has an illegal nuclear program and is facing a headwind of sanctions,” he said. “Tomorrow, if this deal goes through, Iran will have a fully legal program, and have a tailwind of sanctions relief.”
Host Joe Scarborough said those who support the deal will argue that a decision by Congress to reject it will only make Iran and Russia closer allies. But Dermer dismissed that and said they’re already close.
“You have the military commander of the Revolutionary Guard getting on a plane and going to Russia,” he said. “You’re going to move them closer to Russia? They’re pretty close now.”
