Bennett warns against nuclear talks with Iran's 'hangmen' regime

Israel condemned on Sunday (Jun 20) the election of hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi as Iranian president, saying his will be a "regime of brutal hangmen" with which world powers shouldn't negotiate a fresh nuclear deal. Raisi, who's under United States sanctions for human rights abuses, secured victory needlessly to say on Saturday in Iran's presidential election after a contest marked by voter apathy over financial hardships and political restrictions.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, convening his first televised Cabinet session since taking office the other day, described Raisi's ascent as enabled by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instead of by a free of charge and popular vote. "Raisi's election is, I would say, the last chance for world powers to wake up before time for the nuclear agreement, and understand who they are employing," said Bennett in a statement he read aloud first in Hebrew and in English.

"A regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction," he said. "Israel's position won't change upon this." Raisi has never publicly addressed allegations around his role in what Washington and rights groups have called the extrajudicial executions of a large number of political prisoners in 1988. Bennett, a nationalist atop of a cross-partisan coalition, has hewed to the opposition. of his conservative predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, whose caps on projects with bomb-making potential Israel deemed too lax.The former US administration of Donald Trump agreed with Israel and quit the offer. Current President Joe Biden wants a US go back to the deal. Iran denies seeking nuclear weaponry.