In an interview with NBC, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that the world had been so far unsuccessful in dealing with Iran's nuclear program because it did not understand the Iranians. “The Iranians are not like the Russians,” he said, referring to America's efforts to contain Soviet nuclear expansion during the Cold War. “The Iranians value religious fanaticism over survival.”
Netanyahu also said that the Iranians “send terrorists to blow themselves up all over the world. I would not rely on their having a logical thinking process.” He added that Iran was headed by the same “fanatics leading the mobs” who are attacking American embassies around the world. “Do you want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?”