Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter commented on the American Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran during an appearance on the Washington Watch with Tony Perkins program.
"We have great faith in Israel, in President Trump and his vision for the Middle East," Amb. Leiter said. "We've been great partners ever since the president came back to office. We've implemented the 12-day war in June together against Iran. And of course, ever since February 28th, an epic fury and roaring line, we've flown shoulder to shoulder, wing to wing, and we've degraded one of the world's most malign group of people, the madmen of Tehran, who have held us all hostage by closing down the Straits of Hormuz and firing ballistic missiles into all of her neighbors."
"So we're very, very hopeful that the MOU that's about to be signed, or it's apparently agreed upon with Tehran, will actually lead to what it claims, and that's the complete cessation of any kind of nuclear proliferation on the part of Iran. And we're also hopeful that in these 60 days, the issue of ballistic missiles is also going to be discussed and hopefully terminated, because Tehran is not like any other state in the region. They're not like any other state altogether. They're a murderous bunch of thugs. And if they have ballistic missiles, they're going to use them on their neighbors," he said.
The ambassador stated that one aspect that deeply worries Israel is the inclusion of Lebanon in the agreement. "This was apparently an Iranian insistence on including their proxy, the Hezbollah, in Lebanon. We can't have Hezbollah on our border, and we can't have Hezbollah continue to maintain tens of thousands of their Iran-1 fighters, their terrorist fighters that try to infiltrate northern Israel and fire shoulder-to-shoulder missiles and killer drones into our communities. So we're very hopeful that Iran will not be allowed to dictate the future of Lebanon - for the Lebanese, and for Israel."
When asked about the issue of Iran's ballistic missile program, which was not included in the current agreement, he responded that this issue is "very concerning. The president did make reference to ballistic missiles in his press conference, and he did say that was going to be discussed as well." He warned that the Iranians lie often. "It shouldn't surprise us, because murderers do lie. They murdered 42,000 of their own people, and they don't tell the truth. And they said that their ballistic missile program would not include a range that could reach Europe. And we found during the course of this war that they simply lied. They had a range of some 4,000 kilometers, 2,000 miles, that could hit all the way to eastern Germany. So these people lie, and everything needs to be verified."
He added: "We're very confident that the president will not move forward during these 60 days without finding the mechanism for verifying compliance of a part of this regime. These are bad people who don't honor agreements. So it really needs to be not trust and verify, but distrust and verify."
"Our opinion, of course, will be that ballistic missiles in the hands of people who have used them indiscriminately against their neighbors need to be limited dramatically," he saod.
Addressing the text of the agreement, the ambassador became more critical. "On reading the document, one gets the impression, and I hope this isn't true, maybe it's my own mistake in reading the document, but it appears that Iran is getting, it's very clear what Iran is getting. It's not quite as clear what they're giving."
"I hope that during the course of these 60 days that will become much more apparent. Hezbollah enjoyed $1.2 billion of funding from Iran. At the same time, when Iranians don't have a consistent supply of water and electricity, the Iranian government, their own government, is giving Hezbollah $1.2 billion a year in order to implement a wave of terror, whether or not it's a part of the issue. So of course that has to stop," Leiter concluded.