Netanyahu has been warning Iran is close to a nuke since 1992
The Israeli Prime Minister is going to give an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, where he will argue that the U.S. should cease its negotiations with Iran, because it is very close to developing a nuclear weapon, which would pose an unacceptable risk to Israel. Here are previous occasions in which Netanyahu has given similar warnings, compiled by Murtaza Hussain at The Intercept.
1) In 1992, then-member of parliament Netanyahu warned that Iran was 3-5 years from assembling a nuclear weapon, a threat that must be " uprooted by an international front headed by the U.S. "
2) In his 1995 book Fighting Terrorism, Netanyahu warned that Iran was "five to seven years at most" from assembling a nuclear weapon.
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3) In an address to a joint session of Congress in 1996, Netanyahu warned that the "nuclearization" of Iran was "getting extremely close," and only the U.S. could stop it.
4) In 2009, Netanyahu warned a Congressional delegation visiting Israel that, according to "our experts," Iran was 1-2 years from assembling a nuclear weapon.
5) In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, Netanyahu warned that Iran was likely less than a year from assembling a nuclear weapon. (Recently Al Jazeera reported that Israel's intelligence service sharply disagreed with this assessment at the time.)
