Transcript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Interview on NBC's "Today Show"

15/06/2009

MS. CURRY: Well, among the world leaders closely watching the events in Iran is Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. And Mr. Netanyahu is making headlines of his own. During a speech on Sunday, he endorsed a Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time. But his support came with conditions that are already being rejected by the Palestinians. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now joins us exclusively.

Mr. Prime Minister, good morning.

PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: Good morning, Ann.

MS. CURRY: Before we get to your historic speech, given all of Israel's concerns about Israel (sic/means Iran), do you believe that the re-election of President Ahmadinejad is legitimate?

PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: Well, you know, Iranian democracy is a peculiar exercise, as you can see. And what's disappointing, of course, is that Iran has been a repressive regime, repressive to its own peoples and threatening its neighbors abroad. It's a terrorist regime that is building nuclear weapons with the express purpose of wiping Israel off the map and intimidating and dominating the other governments and areas in the Middle East and beyond the Middle East. I think it's very disquieting what we see in Iran.

MS. CURRY: You mentioned Iran's nuclear ambitions. In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear site. Under your leadership, at what point would Israel go it alone and bomb Iran to stop its nuclear ambitions?

PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: I think the most important thing is for the international community to recognize that an Iran with nuclear weapons would threaten the entire world. Certainly it would threaten Israel, but I think it would threaten the Middle East. It would threaten the United States, American interests, in a very, very far radius.

And, look, they're building ballistic missiles that reach deep into Europe and soon could reach beyond Europe. And, of course, they could give these weapons to the terrorist g