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Israeli PM warns world countries over Iran deal as agreement deadline looms

Xinhua, March 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued on Monday to speak against the upcoming agreement between Iran and the international community, as negotiations between the parties continue in Switzerland.

"The agreement being formulated in Lausanne sends a message that there is no price for aggression and on the contrary that Iran's aggression is to be rewarded," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office on Monday.

"The moderate and responsible countries in the region will be the first to be hurt by this agreement," the prime minister said. "One cannot understand that when forces supported by Iran continue to conquer more ground in Yemen, in Lausanne they are closing their eyes to this aggression," he added.

The foreign ministers of Iran and the P5+1 countries (the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) met in Lausanne, Switzerland on Monday morning, as the parties are trying to reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear plan.

The parties have been making last-minute efforts to reach a final agreement on curbing the Iranian nuclear ambitions by the end of March, after nearly two years of negotiations and an interim agreement reached in November 2013.

There have been various reports, some charging the gaps are still far between the parties, while others citing small differences left to be sorted out. The parties planned to reach an agreement by March 31, and discuss the details of its implementation in the following months.

World countries are trying to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, whereas the latter repeatedly stated its nuclear program is aimed for peaceful purposes. Iran, on its end, is trying to get the international communities to lift the crippling economic sanctions imposed on it in recent years.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had in recent years stressed that a nuclear Iran would be dangerous and pose an existential threat on Israel.

He had also spoken in the U.S. congress recently, on behest of the Republican congressmen and against the wishes of the White House, warning that the upcoming agreement would enable Iran to break out and develop a bomb within a year's time, calling it a bad deal and urging the international community to wait for a better deal to come along.

Netanyahu also called the November 2013 interim agreement a "historic mistake." Earlier this month, Netanyahu said Israel would continue to act in all possible venues against the deal being formulated.

In the past, Israeli officials made implicit referrals to a possible Israeli air strike against Iran amid the latter's nuclear program. Endit