WASHINGTON – Seeking to lower tensions, Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. officials cast their dispute over Iran as a family squabble Monday, even as the Israeli leader claimed President Barack Obama did not – and could not – fully understand his nation’s vital security concerns.
“American leaders worry about the security of their country,” Netanyahu said as he opened a controversial trip to Washington. “Israeli leaders worry about the survival of their country.”
Netanyahu’s remarks to a friendly crowd at a pro-Israel lobby’s annual conference amounted to a warm-up act for his address to Congress on Tuesday.
Netanyahu tried to paper over his personal differences with Obama, insisting he was not in Washington to “disrespect” the president and saying any reports of the demise of U.S.-Israel ties were “not only premature, they’re just wrong.”
The prime minister’s remarks were bracketed by speeches from a pair of top Obama advisers: UN Ambassador Samantha Power and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, whose address served as a pre-emptive rebuttal of Netanyahu’s expected critique of the Iran negotiations Tuesday.
With Secretary of State John Kerry opening a new round of talks with Iran in Switzerland, Rice said the U.S. was seeking a deal that would cut off “every single pathway” Iran has to producing a nuclear weapon. She said Obama keeps all options on the table for blocking Tehran’s pursuit of a bomb and declared that “a bad deal is worse than no deal.”
Still, Rice warned against holding out for “unachievable” outcomes, such as getting Iran to fully end domestic enrichment.
“As desirable as that would be, it is neither realistic or achievable,” she said. “If that is our goal, our partners will abandon us.”
Netanyahu appeared to be reserving his most specific criticism of the negotiations for his remarks to lawmakers. But he said he had a “moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there is still time to avert them.”
Negotiators are working to reach a framework agreement before an end of March deadline. U.S. officials have reported progress toward a prospective agreement that would freeze Iran’s nuclear program for at least 10 years but allow the Iranians to slowly ramp up in later years.
Obama spoke dismissively of Netanyahu’s warnings about the risks of such a deal, saying the prime minister had previously contended Iran would not abide by an interim agreement signed in 2013 and would get $50 billion in sanctions relief, a figure the U.S. says is far too high.
“None of that has come true,” Obama said in an interview with Reuters.
Obama views the prospect of a nuclear accord with Iran as a central component of his foreign policy legacy – as much as Netanyahu views blocking such a deal as vital to his country’s security.
Netanyahu has been wary of Obama’s diplomatic pursuits with Iran from the start, fearing the U.S. will leave Tehran on the cusp of being able to build a bomb. As the outlines of a deal have emerged and the deadline has drawn near, his criticism has become more forceful.
The prime minister has suggested the U.S. and its partners have “given up” on stopping Iran. In response, Kerry has said America’s historic support of Israel suggests Washington deserves the benefit of the doubt.
