[attach id=311468 size="medium"]Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Reuters[/attach]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has condemned a big power deal with Iran on its nuclear activity, said yesterday he would meet US President Obama in Washington next month to further the goal of denying Tehran an atomic bomb capability.

Netanyahu, whose relationship with Obama has frayed over the Iranian issue, has described as a “historic mistake” the interim agreement that world powers reached with Iran in November on curbing some aspects of its nuclear programme in return for a limited easing of sanctions imposed on Tehran.

Netanyahu said the main aim of his Washington visit, which will include a policy speech to the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, would be to further the goal of preventing Iran from being able to “break out” a nuclear bomb.

“Iran continues to object to any dismantling of its (uranium) enrichment capability – not even a single centrifuge,” Netanyahu said in public remarks to legislators from his right-wing Likud party.

Iran denies Western allegations it has been seeking the means to make atomic weapons, saying such claims are baseless and fabricated by foes such as Israel, which is widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power.

A diplomatic push to resolve the dispute peacefully gained momentum after last June’s election of a relative moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as Iran’s president on a platform to ease its international isolation.

The Obama administration argues that the November 24 interim pact between six powers and Iran is the best way to try to negotiate a comprehensive settlement that would address all questions about Iran’s atomic programme including its scope.

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Sunday Iran had agreed to start addressing suspicions that it may have worked on designing an atomic weapon, a potential breakthrough in a long-stalled investigation into Tehran’s atomic activities.