Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said more sanctions “are needed to stop Iran from attaining nuclear weapons”, at the start of a meeting with US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook on Tuesday.

“We have very important topics to discuss, even ones that can’t wait until after corona,” Netanyahu said.

“I believe it’s time to implement snapback sanctions,” the Israeli PM said.

“I don’t think we can afford to wait. We should not wait for Iran to start its breakout to a nuclear weapon, because then it will be too late for sanctions.”

The US envoy was in the Zionist entity as the two countries have been working closely together to extend the UN arms embargo on Iran, which expires on October 18. The embargo was part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Though the US withdrew from the agreement in 2018, Trump administration officials, including Hook, have said the US would use its veto-proof “snapback sanctions” mechanism to extend the arms embargo indefinitely.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to discuss the extension of the embargo in the UN Security Council later Tuesday.

Hook said that the Zionist entity and the US “see eye to eye” on extending the arms embargo.

“In four short months, Iran will be able to freely import fighter jets, attack helicopters, warships, submarines, large-caliber artillery systems and missiles of certain ranges,” Hook said. “Iran will then be in a position to export these weapons and their technologies to their proxies, such as Hezbollah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Shia militia groups in Iraq, Syria militant networks in Bahrain and to the Houthis in Yemen.”

Hook mentioned his previous stops on his current Middle East trip, in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain, which have also called to extend the embargo.

Source: Israeli media