To the sentence “Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East” — which is summed up in the term “the policy of ambiguity” — another expression has been added in recent years: “Israel maintains the right to defend itself.” In slight variations, this sentence has been repeatedly stated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following the agreement with Iran that was signed in Geneva on Nov. 24.
This, if you wish, is a delicate phrasing of an explicit threat on Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany, or P5+1 forum, that if the agreement that was reached by diplomatic means will not be satisfactory to Netanyahu, Israel will exercise the right to self-defense to forcibly stop the Iranian nuclear program. In Netanyahu’s view and that of US congressmen who side with him, a retreat from the nuclear program requires the closure of the uranium enrichment plant in Fordow and the heavy water reactor in Arak, through which Iran could create plutonium.