Israeli Defense minister warns against Iran, as Rouhani heads to New York.

Israeli Defense minister warns against Iran, as Rouhani heads to New York.(JPost).

“The Zionist entity is the main threat in the region which violates the international charters regarding its possession of the weapons of mass destruction and its nuclear and chemical arsenal,” The Iranian President said.

 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will not give up on his country's nuclear aspirations, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned on Sunday in the midst of an apparent thaw in relations between Washington and Tehran.
Both US President Barack Obama and Rouhani are expected to address the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, leading to speculation of a possible meeting or contact between the two leaders.
A US official has privately acknowledged the administration's desire to engineer a handshake between the two leaders, which would be the highest-level US-Iranian contact since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
While the US has viewed positively a softening of Tehran’s hardline position, since Rouhani took office this August.

Hours before leaving for New York on Sunday Rouhani said that Tehran was ready for negotiations with Western powers provided they set no pre-conditions. He also said the world needed to accept Iran's right to enrich uranium.

Israel had continually warned the international community not to be fooled by the new Iranian president and has insisted that Tehran not be allowed to produce enriched uranium, a necessary ingredient for nuclear weapons.

“Rouhani was elected with permission from [Iran¹s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei. He’s displaying the nicer face of Iran, but he won’t make significant concessions on the nuclear issue. I¹m sure that¹s his objective,” Ya¹alon told 25 Christian lawmakers from around the world at the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem.

Ya¹alon referred to the Shia concept of Taqiyya, explaining that it means that “under certain circumstances, Muslims are allowed to cheat,” and that Rouhani “is going to lie.”

The defense minister also referred to Iranians targeting Israeli’s around the world, like in Argentina, Thailand and Bulgaria, warning that “we cannot underestimate [Iran¹s] determination to spread Shia Islam all over the globe, finance terror and undermine moderate Muslims.”

An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post, “We are skeptical in the extreme. The Iranians are doing this smiling campaign, but there is no meat. Iranian policy has not changed. They continue to work towards having a nuclear weapons capability.”