Iran nuclear deal will 'fuel terrorism': Netanyahu

Florence (Italy), Aug 30: The deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme will bolster Tehran's ability to fund global terrorism by providing the Islamic state with "billions of dollars" in sanctions relief, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared.

"Iran will get hundreds of billions of dollars from sanctions relief and investments to fuel its aggression and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond," Netanyahu -- who is bitterly opposed to the deal agreed by Iran and world powers in July -- said during a visit to the Italian city of Florence.

The Israeli leader is on a tour of Italy -- his first major overseas visit since being re-elected in June.

Speaking ahead of a meeting yesterday evening with his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi he compared the threat posed by the Islamic State jihadist group with the "far more serious threat...posed by another Islamic state, the Islamic state of Iran and specifically its pursuit of nuclear weapons".

Israel was not opposed to Iran having a civilian nuclear program, he said, but the deal hammered out in the Swiss city of Lausanne would allow Tehran "to keep and extend a formidable infrastructure that is completely unnecessary for civilian nuclear purposes but is entirely necessary for the production of nuclear weapons," Netanyahu declared.

Iran denies trying to develop nuclear weapons, insisting its atomic programme is peaceful.

AFP