Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the opening plenary of the 2019 Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit Monday.

Addressing the audience in Washington DC from Jerusalem, Netanyahu thanked Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of CUFI.

"I want to greet all of you from Jerusalem, the eternal undivided capital of Israel. It will never be divided again," Netanyahu said.

"Pastor Hagee, I want to thank you for your enduring, tremendous support. For decades, you've been leading the effort to strengthen support for Israel within the Christian community. I remember when you began. Once you were one of a handful of brave voices in the wilderness. Thanks to your leadership, now there are millions and millions of devout Christians who stand with Israel.

"So I want to thank you on behalf of all the people of Israel, and I want to thank the thousands of you who have come to Washington from across America to stand with Israel. You came to Washington DC, and I salute you from Jerusalem, DC: Jerusalem, David's capital."

When Pastor Hagee expressed CUFI's concerns over Iran's recent violations of the 2015 nuclear deal, Netanyahu responded: "They're right to be concerned, but I think we should take some perspective on this."

"The deal was always based on a lie that Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons. We exposed that lie when we sent our brave operatives to the heart of Tehran and brought back the secret atomic archive of Iran. And it just showed that they've been working on developing atomic bombs as early as 20 years ago.

"The deal was not only based on a lie, it's a terrible deal because it gave Iran a path to getting a nuclear arsenal when the restrictions on Iran's nuclear programs were removed. It didn't block Iran's path to the bomb. It paved it. It failed to solve the one problem it was supposed to solve. It made other problems worse by removing sanctions on Iran, thereby helping Iran fuel its war machine in the region."

He thanked US President Donald Trump for renewing sanctions on Iran and called for the international community to increase pressure on Iran to end its aggression.

"It's time for Europe to do what they promised to do. They promised to leave the deal and snap-back sanctions if Iran did this. And I said that's the way you stop aggression."