In response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s condition that any final deal with Iran’s nuclear program must include the Iranian regime recognizing Israel’s “right to exist,” the U.S. State Department has rejected the suggestion, calling the talks complicated enough already.
In a terse statement, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said negotiations are only about the nuclear issue.
“This is an agreement that doesn’t deal with any other issues, nor should it,” Harf said.
The U.S. and five other world powers are negotiating an accord with Iran to place limits on Tehran’s nuclear program for the next 15 years. This includes reducing their existing stockpile of nuclear fuel, as well as its capacity to produce new fuel “to a level that would ensure it would take at least a year for Iran to manufacture enough fuel for an atomic weapon if it chose to violate the accord.”
It has taken two years of negotiations, culminating in eight days and nights of talks that nearly broke down several times, to reach the current framework.
Harf’s comment confirms the Obama administration is not seeking to enshrine Israel’s security into a final agreement with Iran.
Critics of the deal under discussion object to the fact that it separates Tehran’s nuclear program from other pressing issues, such as its human-rights abuses and its escalating terrorist aggression throughout the Middle East. Concerns are that a relaxation in sanctions promised by the deal would bolster Iran’s objectionable activities.
In a Friday address, Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s staunch opposition to the agreement and called for the Western powers to include the condition that Iran must recognize the Jewish state before any sanctions are lifted.
“This deal would pose a grave danger to the region and to the world and would threaten the very survival of the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
“The deal would lift sanctions almost immediately – and this at the very time that Iran is stepping up its aggression and terror in the region and beyond the region,” the prime minister added. “In a few years, the deal would remove the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, enabling Iran to have a massive enrichment capacity that it could use to produce many nuclear bombs within a matter of months.”
Obama administration officials have insisted all along that despite their public disagreement with Netanyahu over the Iran deal framework, the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering. On Friday, White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters on Air Force One the U.S. would not agree to any deal that would threaten Israel.
Netanyahu’s stance stemmed from reported statements from a top Iranian military official who was quoted saying “erasing Israel” off the map is “non-negotiable.”
“I want to make clear to all,” said Netanyahu. “The survival of Israel is non-negotiable. Israel will not accept an agreement which allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons, period.”
For that reason, the prime minister said, “Israel demands that any final agreement with Iran will include a clear and unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist.”
Israel’s objections promise to be a major hurdle for the Obama administration, as its representatives meet with those from Iran and the other five western powers in pursuit of a final deal by a June 30 deadline.
