Israel cabinet unanimously opposes Iran n-deal

Tel Aviv, April 3
After conclusion of a three-hour-long meeting on Friday, the Israeli security cabinet unanimously expressed opposition to the “framework agreement” struck on Thursday between P5+1 group of world powers and Iran in Switzerland.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet on Friday to discuss the framework deal reached between world powers and Iran, after telling US President Barack Obama in a phone call that he "vehemently opposed" the agreement, Jerusalem Post reported.

Obama called Netanyahu within hours of the deal being struck, saying it represented significant progress toward a lasting solution that cuts off Iran's path to a nuclear weapon.

But Netanyahu said in a statement after the conversation that a deal based on the framework announced in Lausanne, Switzerland, "would threaten the survival of Israel".

"This deal would legitimise Iran's nuclear programme, bolster Iran's economy and increase Iran's aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond," Netanyahu told Obama.

"It would increase the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region and the risks of a horrific war."

Israel has said in the past that it would consider taking unilateral action to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a warning taken to mean that it could launch air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.

While that rhetoric has died down over the past year or more, the head of Israel's military planning directorate Maj. Gen. Nimrod Sheffer said there was still a possibility.

"The military option has always been on the table, as we have said all along," Sheffer said on Friday. "If it has not been mentioned much in the media recently, that does not reflect a change in policy."