Addressing a crowd at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against the "tyranny in Tehran" and its aggressive empire.
"Darkness is descending on our region. Iran is building an aggressive empire," he said.
Recalling a title from the famous “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” a movie by Sergio Leone, the prime minister gave a 30-minute speech on the “good, bad and beautiful” in Israel and the region.
Netanyahu said the good news is coming out of Israel, regarding its technology, military and intelligence expertise. However, he said the overwhelmingly bad thing was Iran.
"The force behind so much of what is bad is this radical tyranny in Iran. I have a message for you today, it's a very simple one: we must stop Iran, we will stop Iran," the PM said.
During the speech, Netanyahu pointed to a map showing Iran’s inroads in the region colored in black, and said the Republic was trying to establish a land bridge from Tehran to Tartus on the Mediterranean.
“It wants to build precision-guided missile factories in Syria and Lebanon,” he stated. “We won’t let that happen.”
Netanyahu distinguished between the Iranian regime and the Iranian people, saying “the historic friendship between the people of Israel and the people of Persia will be reestablished.”
He said that when he last spoke at the AIPAC in 2015, he had warned the world about a nuclear deal that was a threat to the survival of Israel.
“I warned that the deal gives Iran a clear path towards developing a nuclear arsenal in little more than a decade.”
The PM thanked Trump for his vow to tear up the deal and said Israel would back such a move.
“We will never let Iran develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever,” he said.
