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| John Kerry interviewed by Israel's Channel 10, May 3, 2015 (Channel 10 screenshot) |
In Israeli TV interview, US secretary insists emerging deal will ‘protect Israel'; PM: ‘It will endanger Israel and the world’
US Secretary of State John Kerry
sought to calm Israeli worries over an emerging nuclear deal with Iran
in an interview aired Sunday, dismissing some concerns as brought on by
“hysteria” over the possible agreement.
Speaking
to Israel’s Channel 10 television, Kerry said the deal wouldn’t affect
American options to counter any possible effort by Iran to build atomic
weapons.
He also said he did not believe Israel would
surprise the United States by attacking Iran without prior consultation
because of the “huge” potential implications.
“I say to every Israeli that today we have the
ability to stop [the Iranians] if they decided to move quickly to a
bomb, and I absolutely guarantee that in the future we will have the
ability to know what they are doing so that we can still stop them if
they decided to move to a bomb,” Kerry said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
been one of the harshest critics of the US-led framework deal with the
Islamic Republic, which offers it sanctions relief in exchange for
scaling back its contested nuclear program.
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| PM Benjamin Netanyahu (L) meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome on December 15, 2014 (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO / Flash90) |
Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran an
existential threat, citing hostile Iranian rhetoric toward the Jewish
state, Iran’s missile capabilities and its support for
terrorist groups.In an apparent direct response to Kerry’s comments,
Netanyahu said Sunday that the emerging deal “endangers Israel, it
endangers the region, it endangers the world, the entire world in my
opinion. So I think it’s very important to insist on a better deal.”
Kerry was adamant, nonetheless, that the
criticism is misplaced, and that the deal emphatically benefits Israel.
“We will not sign a deal that does not close off Iran’s pathways to a
bomb and that doesn’t give us the confidence — to all of our experts, in
fact to global experts — that we will be able to know what Iran is
doing and prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon,” Kerry told
Channel 10.
The emerging deal “will in fact protect Israel,” he said, and he vowed that the US won’t “disappoint Israel.”
Kerry made clear that the US maintained all its options, including the military option, to thwart Iran.
He also did not directly rule out the
possibility of Israeli military action, but he said he did not believe
Israel would attack independently of the US. Asked whether he thought he
might “wake up one morning” to find that Israel had launched an
offensive in Iran, Kerry said: “Obviously, for the most part that’s
hypothetical, until we know what the circumstances are where that choice
might or might not be made.”
He went on: “I do not believe frankly that
Israel… that we’d wake up one morning and find that. I believe our
relationship with Israel is such that the prime minister would talk to
us at considerable length, because we would be deeply involved in what
would happen as an aftermath, and there are huge implications to that.”
Netanyahu believes the potential deal leaves
intact too much of Iran’s contested nuclear program, including research
facilities and advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium, a key
ingredient in building an atomic bomb.
“We will have inspectors in there every single
day; that is not a 10-year deal, that is forever,” Kerry said. “There
is a lot of hysteria about this deal.”
Netanyahu’s criticism has contributed to rising tensions between him and President Barack Obama.
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| US Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition spring leadership meeting at The Venetian Las Vegas on April 25, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images/AFP) |
“We think there needs to be a different deal, a
better deal, and there are those that tell us this won’t endanger
Israel,” Netanyahu said Sunday during a visit by US Sen. Rob Portman
(R-Ohio).
“I must say as prime minister of Israel, who is responsible for Israel’s security — this does endanger Israel.”
Asked how he would define the crisis between
Netanyahu and the Obama administration, Kerry said in the interview that
despite a “flare-up” over Netanyahu’s speech to congress in March, he
guarantees there’s nothing standing between the US and Israel.
“I am confident that the relationship between
the president and the prime minster will be viewed…as one that is
operating on all the critical issues.”
But in further indication of the strained
relation between the nations, Channel 2 reported Sunday that Netanyahu
told Kerry to hold off on a visit to Israel earlier this year until
after a coalition is formed.
Kerry had wanted to visit in an effort to
reignite peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and possibly to
compel Netanyahu to meet previous promises regarding a two-state
solution. Netanyahu responded by asking Kerry to arrive only after a new
government is formed, according to Channel 2.
Kerry’s interview came after The New York Times reported on Friday that
the Obama Administration is also “scrambling” to assuage the fears of
its Arab allies over the deal, and is considering a range of options to
placate them, some of which could come at Israel’s expense.
According to The New York Times report,
options under consideration include: a defense pact under which the US
would commit “to the defense of Arab allies if they come under attack
from outside forces”; joint training missions for American and Arab
military forces; designating Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
as “major non-NATO allies,” a step that would loosen restrictions on
weapons sales and offer “a number of military advantages that are
available only to NATO allies”; and approving the sale of its advanced
F-35 stealth fighter to the UAE three years after it is delivered to
Israel.
The sale of F-35s could undermine Israel’s hitherto sacrosanct military edge, the paper noted.
President Obama is reportedly refusing to meet Netanyahu until after the June 30 deadline for the nuclear talks.
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