Netanyahu on Iran Deal: It Confirms Israel’s Worst Fears ‘and Even More So’ [+video]
By Sharona Schwartz. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the emerging agreement being negotiated over Iran’s nuclear program confirmed all of Israel’s worst fears and warned that Iran was trying to “conquer the entire Middle East.”
“This agreement as it appears confirms all of our concerns and even more so,” Netanyahu said at the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Netanyahu accused Iran of trying to control the entire Middle East and blasted what he termed a “Beirut-Damascus-Baghdad axis,” referring to Iran’s regional allies of Hezbollah, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iraq’s Shiites.
“Even as meetings proceed on this dangerous agreement, Iran’s proxies in Yemen are overrunning large sections of that country and are attempting to seize control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb straits which change the naval balance and the global oil supply,” Netanyahu said. “Iran is carrying out a pincer maneuver in the south as well in order to take over and conquer the entire Middle East.” (Read more from “Netanyahu on Iran Deal: It Confirms Israel’s Worst Fears ‘and Even More So’ [+video]” HERE)
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What to Worry About in an Iran Nuclear Deal
By Jeffrey Goldberg. I’m in Berlin, not Lausanne, and I haven’t spoken to anyone associated with the Iran nuclear negotiations in more than a week. Though there is a lot of good journalism being produced out of the talks, it is still difficult to discern what is actually happening at this moment. Those predisposed to believe that these negotiations will bring about a non-violent solution to the Iranian challenge, and also quite possibly encourage the Iranians to be more moderate in their approach to their neighbors, seem somewhat optimistic that the West will make the necessary compromises to win Iranian approval. Those who believe that the West is about to capitulate to Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, and set him on a path to the nuclear threshold seem to be praying that Iranian shortsightedness, or dumb luck on the part of the West, subvert these talks.
The more extreme positions on both sides are distasteful. The Pollyannas who not only seem to believe that Iran should be allowed to maintain an advanced nuclear infrastructure if it promises to behave nicely, but who also believe that this nuclear accord will somehow serve to convince the Iranians to moderate their approach to their neighbors and, for instance, stop sponsoring terrorism and murdering large numbers of people in Syria (among other places), are dangerous and naïve. On the other side, those who argue that no negotiated settlement will ever be good enough to keep Iran from the nuclear threshold—that only military action would guarantee an end to the Iranian nuclear program—believe that it is wise to start an actual war now in order to prevent a theoretical one later. If you believe that we are living in 1938, and that Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are playing the role of Czechoslovakia, then I suppose this position makes sense. I don’t think we are there, however.
I’ve been making lists of questions I have about the parameters of a framework deal, and a list of experts whose judgment I would trust to evaluate the technical aspects of a deal.
Here are a few questions that have, helped by various news stories about the talks, repeatedly crossed my mind in recent days. I would prefer to see a nuclear deal struck, of course, but unsatisfactory answers to these issues would be cause for real worry:
1) What will Saudi Arabia do in response to a deal? If the Saudis—who are already battling the Iranians on several fronts—actually head down the path toward nuclearization, then these negotiations will not have served the underlying purpose President Obama ascribed to them. The president has warned, in interviews with me and others, that a nuclear Iran would trigger a nuclear arms race across the Middle East, the world’s most volatile region. One goal of these talks is to assure the rest of the Middle East that Iran cannot achieve nuclear status. If Saudi Arabia (and Egypt and Turkey and the U.A.E.) does not believe that a deal will achieve this, then it will move on its own to counter the Persian nuclear threat. (Read more from this story HERE)
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