At the end of a week of intense diplomacy at the UN compound in New York in which the overriding focus has been the growing hope of meaningful negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme, Netanyahu sounded a starkly conflicting note in his address to the UN general assembly. He pounded the Iranian regime and its newly elected president, accusing them of sponsoring terrorism and lying repeatedly over their nuclear weapons ambitions, and exhorting the rest of the world not to be hoodwinked into lifting sanctions on Tehran.
Rouhani's strategy, he said, was to "smile a lot because smiling never hurts; pay lip-service to peace, democracy and tolerance; offer meaningless concessions in exchange for lifting sanctions; ensure Iran retains sufficient nuclear material and infrastructure to race to the bomb at a time that it chooses."
He went on: "You know why Rouhani thinks he can get away with this? This is a ruse, a ploy. Because he's gotten away with it before. He fooled the world once, now he thinks he can fool it again. He thinks he can have his yellow cake and eat it too."
Israel has been watching the green shoots of improving relations between Iran and the US with growing alarm. Signs of a changing direction were capped by the 15-minute historic phone conversation between presidents Obama and Rouhani last week.
A year ago, Netanyahu stood at the same podium at the UN general assembly and presented a cartoon-like representation of a Iranian nuclear bomb, with a red line drawn near its peak. At that time, talk of a possible unilateral Israeli air strike on Iran was a dominant subject of diplomatic conversation.
Now Israel is in danger of being sidelined by the rapidly moving sense of detente between the new Iranian government, the US and other western countries. Netanyahu used his UN address, the final speech of the 2013 general assembly, to try and regain some of the initiative and disabuse his fellow leaders of what he considers their mistaken trust in Iran's intentions.
Since Rouhani's election as president, he said, Iran has continued unabated its "vast and feverish effort" to develop the capability to produce an atomic bomb. Last year alone the country had enriched three tonnes of uranium to 20% and added thousands of nuclear centrifuges, including advanced ones.
"It's not hard to find evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons programme, it's hard to find evidence that it doesn't have a nuclear weapons programme," he said.
Netanyahu said the only way to prevent Iran from pressing ahead with its ambitions for the bomb was to maintain, and even strengthen, the international sanctions that are now biting deeply into the Iranian economy. Sanctions should only be lifted after Iran had ceased all uranium enrichment, removed from its territory its stockpiles of already enriched material, close its Fordo enrichment facility and discontinue its heavy water facility in Arak.
Netanyahu's uncompromising speech, in which he portrayed Rouhani as a "loyal servant" of the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, underlines the delicate path that President Obama must travel in the pursuit of negotiations with Tehran. He has made clear that he wishes to pursue the hope of meaningful talks with the new Iranian government, but is also aware that he must not alienate the Israeli government in the process.
When Obama met Netanyahu in the White House on Monday, he said that he was "very clear-eyed" about the chance of negotiations with Rouhani. Netanyahu told Obama in return that Iran was committed to Israel's destruction and only a full dismantling of its military nuclear programme would suffice.
Netanyahu went further in front of the UN on Tuesday, making explicit the threat that underpins the Israeli position: "Israel will never acquiesce to nuclear weapons in the hands of a rogue regime that persistently threatens to wipe us off the map. If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone."
The Israeli prime minister devoted barely a few minutes of his speech on the renewed talks with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the search for peace in the Middle East. He said Israel was still committed to seeking "an historic compromise with our Palestinian neighbours".
But he said it would only happen if the Palestinians "fully recognise the Jewish state, and Israel's security needs must be met. I am prepared to make an historic compromise for an enduring and genuine peace, but I will never compromise the security of my people."
Original Article
Source: theguardian.com
Author: Ed Pilkington
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