Israel calls on U.S. to push Iranians

Hint of easing sanctions seen at issue

Monday, October 21, 2013

JERUSALEM - Just days after the first round of global nuclear talks with Iran, a rift appears to be emerging between Israel and its closest ally, the United States.

Israel’s prime minister on Sunday called on the U.S. to step up the pressure on Iran, even as American officials hinted at the possibility of easing tough economic sanctions. Meanwhile, a leading Israeli daily reported the outlines of Iranian compromises in the talks.

The next round of negotiations between six global powers and Iran is set to begin Nov. 7.

Convinced Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes the Iranians are trying to trick the West into easing economic sanctions while still pushing forwardwith their nuclear program. Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes.

“I think that in this situation as long as we do not see actions instead of words, the international pressure must continue to be applied and even increased,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet. “The greater the pressure, the greater the chance that there will be a genuine dismantling of the Iranian military nuclear program.”

Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran a threat to its survival, citing Iranian references to Israel’s destruction.

Netanyahu said pressure must be maintained until Iran halts all enrichment of uranium, a key step in producing a nuclear weapon; removes its stockpile of enriched uranium from the country; closes enrichment facilities and shutters a facility that could produce plutonium, another potential gateway to nuclear arms.

Despite Netanyahu’s warnings, there are growing signs that any international deal with Iran will fall short of his demands.

Over the weekend, U.S. officials said the White House was debating whether to offer Iran the chance to recoup billions of dollars in frozen assets if it scales back its nuclear program. The plan would stop short of lifting sanctions, but could provide Iran some relief.

In an interview Sunday on NBC, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said it was “premature” to talk of easing sanctions. But he stopped short of endorsing the tough Israeli line and suggested the U.S. would take a more incremental approach in response to concrete Iranian gestures.

Asked whether he was worried the U.S. might ease the sanctions prematurely, Netanyahu urged against a “partial deal” with Iran. “I don’t advise doing that,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Details from last week’s talks in Geneva have remained tightly guarded, but shortrange priorities have been revealed. The U.S. and allies seek to roll back Iran’s highest-level uranium enrichment. In exchange, Iran wants the West to start easing sanctions.

The Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday reported what it said were the key Iranian proposals made last week.

Citing an unidentified senior Israeli official who had been briefed by the Americans, the newspaper said that Iran is ready to halt all enrichment of 20 percent, limit lower-level enrichment of 5 percent and scale back the number of centrifuges it is operating for enrichment. It also claimed that Iran expressed willingness to reduce the operations of its most controversial nuclear facilities and perhaps open them to unannounced inspections.

Netanyahu’s office declined comment on the report, though it confirmed the U.S. has kept it updated on the nuclear talks.

Iran’s parliament speaker, meanwhile, warned Sunday that lawmakers could call for stepped-up atomic work if the West presses too hard for concessions in ongoing nuclear negotiations.

The message from Ali Larijani appeared aimed at both envoys from the West and Iran’s negotiation team, which is led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Larijani told Iran’s representatives that parliament would not permit world powers to impose “special measures” on the country beyond the obligations laid out by the United Nations treaty overseeing nuclear activity, such as U.N. monitoring and inspection.

Iran’s ruling clerics approve all major policies and decisions, but parliament holds enough clout to potentially disrupt nuclear talks.

On Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at a Cabinet meeting to be careful about foreign enemies’ plans for damaging unity in the country, the official IRNA news agency reported. Rouhani said Israel is trying to undermine the ongoing nuclear negotiations.

“Zionists were resorting to sabotage and trouble-making inside or outside the country whenever Iran was achieving a success,” Rouhani was quoted as saying.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and one of its nuclear negotiators, also told a parliamentary committee that “Iran has not admitted any commitment” in the Geneva talks, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported Sunday. He told state television Saturday that Washington holds a “main part of the responsibility in the confidence-building process” in the talks.

The Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper said an “explosion” between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama appears to be inevitable. While Israeli officials are intrigued by the Iranian offer, it said “officials in the prime minister’s inner circle harbor a deep concern … that the American president is going to be prepared to ease sanctions on Iran even before the talks have been completed.”

Ephraim Asculai, a former official of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, said it was too early to talk of a gap between Israel and the United States because the U.S. position on a compromise was not yet clear. He said the most important thing is to prevent Iran from stalling while it moves forward with its weapons program.

But Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert at the institute and a former national security aide in the prime minister’s office, said there will always be a gap between the U.S. and Israel because of their different military capabilities and the level of threat they face.

Guzansky said Israeli officials realize that they will not get everything they seek and are pressing a maximalist view in hopes of getting as many concessions out of Iran as possible.

“It appears that the Americans are interested in a scaled approach,” he said. “Israel is very concerned about this, and it has good reason to. It’s afraid the deal will become a slippery slope,” he said.

However, Guzansky said Israel has little choice but to rely on the U.S. If there is a deal, it will all but rule out the possibility of unilateral Israeli military action, he said.

“Israel really only has one option,” he said. “The chance it will act alone after the Americans make a deal is miniscule.”

Gaza’s Hamas chief, meanwhile, is calling for a renewed violent uprising against Israel.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called Saturday on all Palestinian factions to oppose the recently restarted peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and take up “armed resistance.”

Israel is negotiating with the West Bank government of President Mahmoud Abbas. The Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, does not recognize Israel and calls for its destruction.

Information for this article was contributed by Aron Heller and Nasser Karimi of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/21/2013