Netanyahu Warns of Iran During Japan Visit

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took his Iran message to Japan, warning on Monday that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is a clear and present danger and the country cannot be allowed to get the capability to make nuclear arms.

In Japan for meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials, Netanyahu compared the danger posed by Iran to that of North Korea, which this weekend renewed a threat to conduct a nuclear test amid rising worries that the reclusive state may set off an atomic device for the fourth time.

Netanyahu, at a press event with Abe, told reporters that Israel and Japan faced the challenge of “rogue states arming themselves with nuclear weapons.”

“You have called North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles a ‘clear and present danger’ and I wholeheartedly share your assessment,” Netanyahu added.

“Those same words, ‘clear and present danger,’ certainly apply to the Iranian nuclear program as well.”

“We cannot let the ayatollahs win,” Netanyahu said. “We cannot enable the world’s foremost terrorist states to get the capability to make nuclear weapons.”

Netanyahu arrived in Japan Sunday and will remain until Thursday, meeting business leaders and officials such as Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera.

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the May 13th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.