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Netanyahu Plans To Team Up With Trump To Rip Up Iran Deal

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Saagar Enjeti White House Correspondent
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans on speaking with President-elect Donald Trump about the Iran deal after the inauguration, he told a conference audience Sunday.

Netanyahu publicly clashed with President Barack Obama over the Iranian nuclear deal, traveling to the U.S. to protest the deal before Congress in 2015. Trump called the deal a “disaster” on numerous occasions throughout the campaign, terming it “the worst deal ever negotiated.”

Trump’s pledge to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran deal will prove difficult, if he promises to follow through. Vice President-elect Mike Pence vowed that the deal will be “ripped up” upon consultation with U.S. allies. Department of State Spokesman Mark Toner, however, confirmed to reporters “the agreement is valid only as long as all parties uphold it.”

The Iran nuclear deal is also signed by Russia, Britain, France, China, and Germany. The U.S. along with several other European countries have begun to re-engage economically with Iran. Boeing signed a multi-million dollar deal with Iran Air, to provide a brand new fleet of planes.

“The problem isn’t so much that Iran will break the deal, but that Iran will keep it because it just can walk in within a decade, and even less … to industrial-scale enrichment of uranium to make the core of an arsenal of nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu continued Sunday. Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis was reportedly forced out of the military in 2013 for echoing similar concerns.

Mattis did not oppose the deal itself, but instead asked provocative questions about the long-term impact of the deal. Questions he posed to Obama and his team included, “what do you do with Iran once the nuclear issue is resolved and it remains a foe? What do you do if Iran then develops conventional capabilities that could make it hazardous for U.S. Navy ships to operate in the Persian Gulf?” When officials would answer or demur he would say, “And then what?”

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