Netanyahu on BBC PErsian
Netanyahu on BBC PErsianScreenshot

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu mixed in a couple of expressions in Farsi, in an interview on BBC Persian Thursday aimed at the Iranian people.

Speaking with conviction, Netanyahu said: “I would welcome a genuine rapprochement, a genuine effort to stop the nuclear program, not a fake one, not harf-e pootch ['nonsense' in Farsi]. ”We are not sadeh-lowe ['suckers' in Farsi],” said the prime minister.

He said that if Iran develops nuclear weapons, it will not only threaten Israel and the United States, but spell slavery for the Iranian people themselves. The Iranian people “will never get rid of the tyranny” of the regime if it obtains nuclear weapons, he said.

“The Iranian people are paying a high price for the military nuclear program the regime insists it doesn’t have,” Netanyahu said.

“The issue is this regime's control of Iran, its aggressive designs, its brutalization of its own people,” he said. “We don't forget. I saw Neda on the sidewalk," he said, in a reference to the famous protester who was killed during the 2009 uprising against the regime. "I saw her choking in her own blood. I saw the desire of the Iranian people to have real freedom, a real life,” he said. “I know that. It's there.”

This was Netanyahu's first interview to the Persian-language television channel, which claims to broadcast to around 12 million people every week.