Iranian Cleric: Nuclear Bomb Necessary to 'Put Down Israel'

Iranian lawmaker and cleric Muhammad Nabavian says the country could build a nuclear weapon in a matter of weeks in order to "put down Israel."

Nabavian stated in local media on Friday that Tehran could be able to assemble a nuclear bomb in "two weeks" if it had access to 270 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium, 10 tons of 5 percent, and 20,000 centrifuges, reports The Washington Free Beacon, which obtained an independent translation of his remarks.

"We are not looking for a nuclear bomb, but having a nuclear bomb is necessary to put down Israel," Nabavian said, according to the Beacon.

He also reportedly claimed that President Barack Obama had reached out to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on several occasions before Rouhani visited New York City last year.

Meanwhile, with the interim nuclear deal between Iran and the West due to be enacted on Jan. 20, Nabavian revealed the negotiations are nearly finished.

"Our negotiation with the U.S. has developed swiftly. We reached to 90 percent agreement," he said in his remarks Friday.

And as implementation of the deal nears, Western companies are rushing to do business with Tehran, undermining the power of sanctions to stop its nuclear program, reports The Jerusalem Post.

"It has sent a clear message that doing business with Iran is now legitimate, and that Tehran and Washington are on a path to improved relations. In doing so, it has created an influential economic lobby in the West dedicated to ensuring that the Americans and Iranians remain on that path. The sanctions regime is not dead, but it is damaged," Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, told the Post.

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