Iran nuclear deal: Benjamin Netanyahu presses US to seek better terms to prevent Iran's 'free path to the bomb'

Mr Netanyahu has been highly critical of the agreement struck on Thursday between world powers and Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Washington to seek a better deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, saying today that he would press the US not to give Tehran “a free path to the bomb”.

Mr Netanyahu, in the first of several appearances on US television, said he has spoken to both Democrats and Republicans in Congress about the Iran nuclear issue.

Mr Netanyahu has been highly critical of the agreement struck on Thursday between world powers and Iran, saying it does not do enough to protect Israel. “This is not solely an Israeli issue,” he said. “Everyone is going to be threatened by the pre-eminent terrorist state of our time, keeping the infrastructure to produce not one nuclear bomb but many, many nuclear bombs down the line.”

Appearing on CNN, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a leading Democratic voice on foreign affairs, said she did not believe the agreement threatened Israel, and had harsh words for Netanyahu.

"I don't think it's helpful for Israel to come out and oppose this one opportunity to change a major dynamic which is downhill, a downhill dynamic in this part of the world," said Feinstein.

Netanyahu angered the White House and alienated some of President Barack Obama's Democrats when he accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress on March 3, two weeks before the Israeli elections that returned him to office.

Reuters