Benjamin Netanyahu: nuclear-armed Iran 'as dangerous as 50 North Koreas' – The Telegraph

Benjamin Netanyahu: nuclear-armed Iran 'as dangerous as 50 North Koreas' – The Telegraph

Delivering a trenchant address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Israeli prime minister rounded on President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. The Islamic Republic's new leader has offered "peace and friendship" to America and held out the prospect of settling the confrontation over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

But Mr Netanyahu recalled how North Korea agreed in 2005 to freeze its nuclear programme. "A year later, North Korea exploded its first nuclear weapons device," he said. "Yet as dangerous as a nuclear-armed North Korea is, it pales in comparison to the danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran."

An Iran with nuclear weapons would disrupt global energy supplies and turn the "most unstable part of the planet into a nuclear tinderbox" by triggering a regional arms race, predicted Mr Netanyahu. "A nuclear-armed Iran in the Middle East would not be another North Korea. It would be another 50 North Koreas."