Benjamin Netanyahu challenges US over Iran nuclear deal

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced off against the Obama administration over proposed sanctions relief for Iran, calling the US-backed offer a very bad deal for the international community.

add_main_imageNetanyahu told reporters before a meeting with visiting US secretary of state John Kerry on Friday that Israel utterly rejects and is not obliged by this agreement, which world powers and Iran said was emerging at a current round of nuclear talks in Geneva.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in Washington on Thursday that Iran has been offered limited, targeted and reversible relief from sanctions in return for verifiable concessions on its nuclear programme.NextMAds

“I understand that the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva, as well they should be, because they got everything and paid nothing,” Netanyahu said. “Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal. This is a very bad deal.”

Netanyahu doesn’t believe Iran’s assertions that its nuclear programme is peaceful and says a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel’s survival. He warned on Thursday that moderating the pressure on the Iranians would be a mistake of historic proportions. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Halt enrichment

The Israeli leader has urged the US and five other powers—France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China—taking part in talks with Iran to reject any proposal unless it ensures a halt to all uranium enrichment and the construction of a plutonium-producing reactor. He’s dismissed overtures to the West by Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, and reiterated that Israel may attack Iran to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

After meeting with Netanyahu, Kerry boarded a plane for Geneva to join other Western politicians to help try to clinch the accord. Participants in the Geneva nuclear talks said an initial deal is possible when they convene today for a second day of negotiations.

The tensions over Iran have frayed relations that Netanyahu and the White House have worked to repair in recent months. The friction has also clouded Kerry-led efforts to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.sixthMAds

Netanyahu last month linked developments on Iran to progress on peacemaking with the Palestinians, telling Kerry in Rome that relaxing pressure on Iran would make it harder for Israel to compromise.

Settlement construction

He reinforced that linkage on Friday in his remarks before the meeting with Kerry, saying that his refusal to compromise on Israel’s security and our vital interests extends also to talks with the Palestinians.

“I think the pressure has to be put where it belongs, that is, on the Palestinians who refuse to budge,” he said.

On Thursday, Kerry criticized Israel’s conduct during the talks, which he laboured to renew in July after a three-year breakdown. In a television interview, he said Netanyahu risks appearing uncommitted to an agreement because of continued construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured from Jordan in 1967 where the Palestinians hope to establish the core of a future state.

“It sends a message that somehow, perhaps you’re not really serious,” he said.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have announced they are pushing ahead with plans to erect thousands of new apartments in captured areas. More than half a million Israelis live on territories Israel seized, and the Palestinians say the growing numbers make it hard for them to establish a viable state.

Failure to reach an accord in the current round of talks could lead to a new Palestinian uprising, or intifada in Arabic, against Israel, Kerry cautioned.

“The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos,” he said. “Does Israel want a third intifada?” BLOOMBERG