“We have an obligation to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. It's the world's obligation, but above all it is our obligation… We shall never bury our heads in the sand,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem memorial complex.

“Those who dismiss the Iranian threat as a whim or an exaggeration have learned nothing from the Holocaust,” he said. "A nuclear Iran is a threat to the existence of the State of Israel and also to the rest of the world.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres also linked Holocaust and Iran’s nuclear ambitions in his speech, describing the Islamic Republic as “the terror hub” and “a threat to world peace.”

"We used to be a question mark then, today we are a strong nation,” he said. “There are no reasons for underestimating capabilities - both unconcealed and hidden - that Israel has to deal with the [Iranian] threat.”