An Iranian nuclear facility. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to clarify his stance on the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, calling for the agreement to either by amended or canceled altogether.

“In the case of Iran, there have been some news stories about Israel’s purported position on the nuclear deal with Iran,” Netanyahu said at a joint press conference in Buenos Aires with Argentine President Mauricio Macri. “So let me take this opportunity and clarify: Our position is straightforward. This is a bad deal. Either fix it — or cancel it. This is Israel’s position.”

Netanyahu’s statement came after a report by Reuters suggested that both Israel and Saudi Arabia — two US allies that have been strongly opposed to the Iran deal — were in favor of the US remaining in the pact, despite their reservations about Iran’s adherence to the agreement.

The report said that the Trump administration was still debating a “new stance” on the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

“The main issue for us was to get the president not to discard the JCPOA,” a US official told Reuters. “But he had very strong feelings, backed by (US Ambassador to the United Nations) Nikki Haley, that they should be more aggressive with Iran. Almost all the strategies presented to him were ones that tried to preserve the JCPOA but lean forward on these other (issues).”

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Trump during his visit to New York next week to address the United Nations General Assembly. Netanyahu has been an outspoken critic of the Iran nuclear deal and had pressed former President Barack Obama against it.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly called the deal “disastrous” and promised to “rip it up.”