Tehran made the move after the US pulled out from the Iran nuclear deal, which Mr Netanyahu has been a critic of and despite attempts to save the deal from the UK, France and Germany, tensions have increased after a series of diplomatic rows. The Likud Party Chairman, who has been Prime Minister in Tel Aviv since 2009, said the only motive for Iran’s actions was to eventually build a nuclear bomb. As CNBC reports, Iran has said it will continue to break its commitments every 60 days unless signatories protected it from US sanctions.
Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet in public remarks: “This is a very, very dangerous step.
“I call on my friends, the heads of France, Britain and Germany — you signed this deal and you said that as soon as they take this step, severe sanctions will be imposed — that was the Security Council resolution. Where are you?”
The other signatories are the EU, China and Russia who could trigger a resolution process which may result in the UN Security Council reimposing sanctions on Tehran.
Israel and Iran have long had no diplomatic relations with Tehran referring to Tel Aviv as the “Zionist regime”.
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Iran was initially hostile towards Israel, voting against the state’s admission to the United Nations.
After the 1953 coup d’etat installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah, relations prospered with the Shah seeking close ties with the west and a more modernising approach.
He was overthrown in 1979 following the Islamic Revolution and Tehran has since refused to recognise Tel Aviv.
Israel has maintained it believes Iran was involved in the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Argentina and a 1994 attack on a Jewish community centre in the same city as well as a 2012 attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.
The two countries had never directly been on opposing sides in an armed conflict until Israeli involvement in the Syrian Civil War with Operation Chess in 2012.
Israel sent humanitarian aid across the border from 2013 to September 2018 and whilst being officially neutral on the conflict, it is opposed to Iran’s involvement and confirmed it has launched airstrikes.
Tel Aviv has long been considered by some to have developed its own nuclear weapons in the 1960s but has never officially admitted to possessing them.
Former Barack Obama advisor Colin Kahl has suggested Iran would likely attempt to mobilise proxies such as Hezbollah against Israel in neighbouring Lebanon if a war broke out with the US.