CRI听力:Netanyahu Warns US against Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suggesting the current negotiations connected to Iran's nuclear program are going to pave the way for Tehran to create nuclear weapons, rather than block them.

Speaking to the US Congress, Netanyahu is depicting Iran as a "threat to the entire world", likening Tehran to the Islamic State.

"The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle but lose the war. We can't let that happen."

Netanyahu's speech came just hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry met for more than two hours in Switzerland with his Iranian counterpart in the Obama administration's latest attempt to reach a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program.

The Israeli leader has also called on US lawmakers to reject, what he describes as, a "bad deal" with Iran.

"This deal has two major concessions. One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program and two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade. That's why this deal is so bad. It doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb, it paves Iran's path to the bomb."

Netanyahu's speech before the US Congress was at the invitation of the Republican leadership, and was done without the consent of the White House.

Obama administration officials have described this as potentially "destructive" to the fabric of US-Israeli relations.

The speech itself was boycotted by a majority of Democrats.

President Barack Obama, who is refusing to meet with Netanyahu during his time in Washington, says the Israeli leader isn't offering a "viable alternative" when it comes to Iran.

"I did not have a chance to watch Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech I was on a video conference with our European partners with respect to Ukraine. I did have a chance to take a look at the transcript and as far as I could tell there was nothing new."

In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry is describing the speech as a "show full of deception."

Netanyahu's address to the US Congress comes just two weeks before parliamentary elections in Israel.