German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday criticized Israel's opposition to the nuclear deal agreed upon by six world powers and Iran, Reuters reported. According to the report, Steinmeier said the agreement would help contribute to security in the Middle East. "This is a responsible deal and Israel should also take a closer look at it and not criticize the agreement in a very coarse way," he was quoted as having told German broadcaster ARD . Steinmeier refuted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s argument against the agreement, saying the basis for the agreement was transparency and the ability to monitor Iran's compliance. "In the agreement, Iran has to commit to these monitoring possibilities. And we will make sure that the monitoring possibilities are also observed after this deal," he said, according to Reuters . Earlier Tuesday, at a press conference in Jerusalem with visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, Netanyahu decried the deal as a "bitter mistake of historic proportions." "In every area where it was supposed to prevent Iran attaining nuclear arms capability, there were huge compromises," he added. "I will refer later to the details of the agreement, but before that, I would like to say here and now – when you are willing to make an agreement at any cost, this is the result." Netanyahu later made clear that Israel “is not bound by this deal with Iran, because Iran continues to seek our destruction. We will always defend ourselves." Steinmeier is not the only foreign leader to criticize Netanyahu’s comments. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed Netanyahu's criticism as “comments that are way over the top". "What the critics of this plan never offer... is a realistic alternative," Kerry told MSNBC . "It's wrong for people to think this doesn't have long-term accountability." "Israel is safer" as a result of Tuesday's accord, Kerry insisted. "This is under attack by people who really don't know the terms of the agreement."
