Murnaghan 24.11.13 Interview with Naftali Bennett, Leader of Israel's Jewish Home party.

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Let’s talk now about the Israeli reaction, Naftali Bennett is leader of Israel’s right wing Jewish Home Party and he is also a Cabinet Minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. Very good to talk to you, Mr Bennett, we heard Prime Minister Netanyahu there saying the world is now a more dangerous place and this is an historic mistake, you go along with that presumably?

NAFTALI BENNETT: Well Iran was on the floor, we had immense economic sanctions that were pressuring them and what we need is to get Iran into an either/or situation. Either you pursue the nuclear weapon programme or you can have a good economy but you can’t have both and right now we are precisely handing them the wriggle out room to keep their nuclear programme which is exactly what’s happened, not one centrifuge is going to be dismantled, they have got 18,500 and at the same time we are easing the sanctions. We need to look forward now at this time, it is what it is, but we need to look at what happens during the next six months. We need to ensure that at the end of the six months Iran is dismantled from its illegal nuclear weapon programme and only then will there be any continuation of the easing of sanctions. If not then we need to ratchet up the sanctions again.

DM: Isn’t a lot of that, you heard words to that effect from President Obama.

NAFTALI BENNETT: No, the current agreement has a considerable easing of sanctions, where in fact Iran gets to keep its entire machine, they don’t have to dismantle anything. Remember, in 2006 they had 164 centrifuges, since then they grew their programme to 18,500 while breaching a series of Security Council resolutions. This has been illegal and in effect they are being allowed to keep their illegal machine. Right now if Iran wants to at any point they can break out but they are afraid to because of international pressure. If we ease that pressure and wait for a good opportune time, it might be six months, twelve months, eighteen months from now, when everyone is distracted and then they’ll break out a la North Korea . That’s what we need to prevent, take apart the machine.

DM: But Mr Bennett, as you know these are very, very experienced international diplomats who have negotiated this deal and they always say that you have to have carrot and stick when you negotiate. This is a little bit of carrot isn’t it, for the Iranians and the jury is out. If they don’t deliver, the sanctions will be ratcheted up again.

NAFTALI BENNETT: Well that part has been a bit unclear. If they don’t deliver then indeed the sanctions need to be ratcheted up and, most importantly, what does it mean the word ‘deliver’? If it’s just to click the pause button on the machine, anyway they clicked the pause button a few months ago. They are not producing any more high grade uranium anyway because they don’t want to break out right now. What they need to do is dismantle their entire machine. They have the water reactor, the centrifuges, the missiles that can reach Europe. I want to point this out, if they get a bomb it means that Saudi Arabia will get one, Egypt will get one, Syria will get one, the whole Middle East will be filled with nuclear weapons which from there to a nuclear 9/11, the distance is very short.

DM: You left Israel out of that list. Wouldn’t it help when you are making this point from Israel about honesty and its nuclear ambitions when you are lecturing Iran, that you finally admitted you’ve got nuclear weapons?

NAFTALI BENNETT: First of all, I cannot recall Israel ever threatening to wipe out a different country. Iran, even in the last week, they keep on talking about wiping out Israel from the face of the earth. This is a maniacal regime that right now, even with the [inaudible] keeps on stating its exclusive objective so I cannot imagine how you’d feel if they said they want to see Britain wiped off the map and they’re racing towards a nuclear weapon. But I want to tell you, Israel is not their main problem, the West is and if we don’t prevent them from acquiring a weapon these missiles can reach Madrid, Rome and London just as easily as Tel Aviv.

DM: Okay, but if Iran did develop a nuclear weapon are you saying then Israel is more or less admitting that you’ve got nuclear weapons, could adopt a first strike policy and get them before they get you?

NAFTALI BENNETT: Well let me be very clear. Israel can defend itself, Israel will defend itself. In 1981 when Saddam Hussein was building his nuclear reactor in Osirak, Israel went out and bombed it and prevented the world from having a nuclear Saddam Hussein. In 2007 allegedly Israel did the same with Bashar Al-Assad. Just imagine if Bashar Al-Assad today had a nuclear bomb, just imagine that. We are talking about the precise same situation. Israel has never asked anyone to defend it and never has anyone else defended it. Israel can and will protect itself if necessary.

DM: Okay Mr Bennett, good to talk to you. Thank you very much indeed for your time. That’s Naftali Bennett there, live from Jerusalem.