WarSclerotic

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif slammed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahyu’s rejection of Tehran’s overtures for diplomacy with the West on Tuesday, accusing the Israeli premiere of “lies and actions to deceive and scare.”

AFP quoted Zarif as saying that “international public opinion will not let these lies go unanswered.”

Zarif’s comments came a day after Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama in an effort to convince him not to lessen pressure on Iran in the face of Iran’s recent “charm offensive.”

Netanyahu was expected to make the same plea, that Iran is continuing to pursue nuclear weapons despite its words to the contrary, in his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday evening.

“For 22 years, the Zionist regime has been lying by repeating endlessly that Iran will have the atomic bomb in six months,” AFP quoted Zarif as saying.

“After all these years, the world must understand the reality of these lies and not allow them to be repeated,” he added.

The Iranian foreign minister said that Netanyahu was alone in his rejection of Iran’s diplomatic overtures, referring to him as “the most isolated man at the UN.”

In his Oval Office meeting with Obama on Monday, Netanyahu urged the US president to tighten sanctions on Iran and said that Israel reserves the right to wage a unilateral military campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities should the words of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani not quickly be followed by constructive action.