Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ripped into arch-rival Iran during a speech before the United Nations on Monday, dismissing the Islamic theocracy’s “crocodile tears” over the spread of terrorism and warning the country is trying to “bamboozle” and manipulate the West in suggesting cooperation against the Islamic State.
The noticeable thaw in U.S.–Iranian relations over the past year — brought about largely through a nascent nuclear deal and a shared foe in the Islamic State — has alarmed Netanyahu.
“Iran’s President Rouhani stood here last week and shed crocodile tears over what he called the ‘globalization of terrorism,’” Netanyahu charged. “Maybe he should spare us those phony tears, and have a word instead with the commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.”
Netanyahu noted that Iran’s forces have conducted terror attacks in over two dozen countries. Rouhani’s condemnation of terror, he explained, is “one of history’s greatest displays of double-talk.”
The prime minister took aim at those who say “things are changing” and that Iran wants to “reconcile with the West” and “abandon the global mission of the Islamic revolution.”
“Don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive,” Netanyahu said. “It’s designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: To lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.”
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