Netanyahu: Iran deal insubstantial ‘political theater’
Unnamed Israeli officials pan Obama’s lack of ‘political stomach’ for addressing nuclear program; PM urges Western powers not to compromise on demands
December 2, 2013, 10:51 pm
10
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reviews the honor guard during an
intergovernmental summit with Italian Premier Enrico Letta in Rome,
Monday, Dec. 2, 2013. (Photo credit: AP/Gregorio Borgia)
Nuclear negotiations that led to an interim deal with Iran last week were more political theater than substance, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Rome on Monday, urging Western
powers not to ease economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
At
a press conference in the Italian capital, the prime minister again
expressed strong opposition to the accord, urging European powers to
demand a substantial rollback from Iran before agreeing to ease an
effective sanctions regime. He warned that although Tehran, led by
President Hassan Rouhani, presented a smiling face to the West, it
continued to “butcher people in Syria, to promote terrorism” and to
support Hezbollah and Hamas.
“Even though Iran has not even begun to
implement the agreement, there appears to be a general relaxation of
sanctions and a rush to accommodate Iran and to make it legitimate, as
if Iran has changed anything of its actual policies except to smile, to
speak English — on occasion — and to make Powerpoint presentations,”
Netanyahu remarked. “What a revolution!”
Meanwhile,
Jerusalem officials on Monday lashed out against President Barack Obama
for wanting, they said, to reach an agreement with Iran in order finish
his second term in office without getting bogged down in another
conflict.
After anonymous US officials were quoted in the Israeli press
saying that Netanyahu’s outspoken criticism of the interim deal with
Iran was “weak and desperate,” unnamed officials in Jerusalem sniped
back, saying Obama only cared about surviving the remaining three years
in office.
“President Obama just wants to peacefully pass his remaining time
until the end of his term. He doesn’t have the political stomach to
grapple with Iran,” Channel 10 quoted “the Israeli leadership” as
saying.
“Removal of the sanctions in the Geneva agreement will end the
pressure on Iran,” the unnamed sources in Jerusalem said, according to
the channel.
According to Ynet News, the officials
suggested that American public opinion, weary of conflict after over a
decade of military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, dictates that
the administration should focus on domestic and economic issues and put
matters of foreign policy on the back burner.
Describing
the upheaval-ridden Middle East as “a cauldron of instability,”
Netanyahu said “a nuclear-armed ayatollah regime in Iran” would “topple
the apple-cart” by tipping the region away from modernity, stability and
“a better future for all of us” and into the hands of those who “reject
modernity, reject pluralism, reject science, reject technology” and aim
to plunge the region into “darkness.”
The prime
minister warned that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons capabilities, it
will be “a pivot of history” that will not only upset progress all over
the Middle East, but also might endanger Europe and the world at large.
“This must be stopped,” Netanyahu asserted, adding that an end to sanctions
against Iran would “mark the end of the possibility of reaching a
peaceful resolution to the question of ending Iran’s military nuclear
program.”
“For that purpose, the sanctions regime and
the demands have to be kept in place, and we should not be satisfied
with political theater. We need substance,” he said.
“I know they don’t always speak up as we do,
but believe me, when Israelis and Arabs speak together and speak in the
same voice, it’s worthwhile for the world to listen,” he said.
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