Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Friday that world powers must deny Iran any possibility of “developing a nuclear weapon”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Friday that world powers must deny Iran any possibility of “developing a nuclear weapon” as the search for a final deal between Iran and the world powers intensifies.

"I think that, while the talks with Iran are going on, there is one thing that must guide the international community and that is not to let the ayatollahs win," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying at the beginning of their meeting in Jerusalem.

"We must not allow Iran, the foremost terrorist state of our time, to develop the ability to develop a nuclear weapon," Netanyahu said.

Hagel said that Washington had the same goal.
"I want to assure you prime minister, and the people of Israel, of the United States' continued commitment to assuring Iran does not get a nuclear weapon," he said in video distributed by the US embassy.

"America will do what we must to live up to that commitment," he added.

The Pentagon chief's visit to the Zionist entity came as the United States and other major powers pressed talks with Iran on a long-term agreement to allay international concerns about its nuclear ambitions.

Iran confirms its program is for peaceful ends only insisting that is its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) while Israel, which is believed to be the sole nuclear power in the Middle East with more than 200 nuclear heads, is not a signatory for this treaty.