[caption id="attachment_51478" align="alignright" width="175"] Deputy White House spokesman Josh Earnest[/caption]

Netanyahu blasts reported draft agreement which would let Tehran �gradually build up� nuclear capabilities.

The White House on Tuesday denied reports that the US and Iran were working toward a deal which would see the Islamic republic freeze nuclear activity for a decade in exchange for lifting sanctions

The�Wall Street Journal reported�Monday that the US was considering a compromise position which would keep Tehran from �amassing enough material to make a bomb for at least a decade, but could then allow it to gradually build up its capabilities again.��An AP report, similarly,�said the emerging deal �would clamp down on Tehran�s nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly ease restrictions on programs that could be used to make atomic arms.�

�Those reports are not correct,� White House spokesman Josh Earnest told the press at a briefing on Tuesday. �That does not reflect the accurate negotiating position of the United States and our international partners.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out Tuesday against the reported draft deal.

�This agreement, if indeed it is signed, will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state. That is, with the consent of the major powers, Iran � which openly declares its intention to destroy the State of Israel � will receive a license to develop the production of bombs,� Netanyahu said.

The so-called P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany are trying to strike an accord that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.

In return, the West would ease punishing sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program, which Iran insists is purely civilian in nature.

�The policy is Iran will not get a nuclear weapon,� Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier Tuesday. �And anybody running around right now, jumping in to say, well, we don�t like the deal, or this or that, doesn�t know what the deal is. There is no deal yet.�

�I don�t know anybody who looks at the interim agreement and doesn�t say, wow, this has really worked � including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who would like to see it extended, having opposed it vehemently in the beginning, calling it the deal of the century for Iran,� he continued.

By The Times of Israel