Netanyahu Seeks to Create Tension: Iranian FM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the Zionist regime’s prime minister seeks to foment tension.
Ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to both chambers of the US Congress on Tuesday, Zarif said Netanyahu is trying to create tension.
"… I don't think trying to create tension and conflict helps anyone," the Iranian top diplomat, who is in Switzerland, further told CNN.
Netanyahu, who is in Washington, started his address to a joint session of Congress at 11 AM local time.
He is expected to use the podium to warn the White House about the "threat" of a nuclear deal with Iran.
Iran and the Group 5+1 countries (the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s civilian nuclear energy program.
Israeli officials have said that Netanyahu plans to reveal sensitive details of the accord taking shape in talks between Iran and the G5+1, which has entered a sensitive final stage.
The White House warned Netanyahu against revealing such details, after a Republican senator said Netanyahu’s speech to Congress has "something we have never heard before."
US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to speak to Congress. The invitation was extended hours after Obama threatened to veto any sanctions legislation against Iran during his State of the Union address in January.
The Obama administration is both angry at Netanyahu’s accepting the Republican invitation to address Congress two weeks before the Israeli election without consulting the White House and excessive Israel Lobby interference in American foreign policy.
