This was the first direct conversation between an
American and an Iranian leader in 34 years.
By: Jewish Press Staff
The Israeli PM is trying to do damage control
following the, apparently successful, Rouhani charm offensive this week.
Netanyahu and Obama at the White House, July 2010. The Israeli PM is trying to
do damage control following the, apparently successful, Rouhani charm offensive
this week.
On Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
ordered his government ministers not to grant media interviews on political
issues. The order came 24 hours after the phone conversation between President
Barack Obama and his Iranian counter part Hassan Rouhani as the latter was
leaving the U.S. Netanyahu ordered all his government ministers to cancel all
their interview dates on radio and television tonight and tomorrow, and to
avoid any public response to any of Rouhani’s remarks, and, more specifically,
to avoid comments on the one-on-one phone conversation.
Media commentators in Israel have suggested that the PM
wishes to avoid any domestic embarrassments on the eve of his meeting with
Obama, with his own coalition members issuing statements that contradict his
own.
Though more likely, with the situation as delicate and
unstable as it is, Netanyahu probably has a strategy in mind in how to deal
with these latest developments, including Obama’s surprising linkage of dealing
with Iranian nuclear weapons to Israel’s forced capitulation to the Palestinian
Authority, Rouhani’s, apparently successful, charm offensive, and an unreliable
ally that has further destabilized the Middle East; Netanyahu simply doesn’t
want his strategy derailed or undermined by a misspoken comment. This was the
first direct conversation between an American and an Iranian leader in 34
years.
The conversation lasted 15 minutes, at the end of which
Obama blessed Rouhani in Iranian with the word “Khodahafez”, which translates
into “God should be with you”. Rouhani tweeted the conversation to his
followers. Netanyahu is set to meet with Obama before his speech at the UN this
week.
A
commentator on Iran’s Press TV suggested the possible rapprochement between
Iran and the U.S. was Netanyahu and the Israeli lobby in the United States
nervous, that “you could fry an egg on the top of Netanyahu’s head at any given
time during the day right now. He is absolutely furious.”
The commentator, Mark Glenn, said Netanyahu is so frustrated
because he “did not get his war in Syria, he is not going to get his war in
Iran and now you have got an American administration talking reasonably with
the Iranians, first time it has happened over thirty years.”
What
Netanyahu actually said about Rouhani’s UN speech was that ”as expected, this
was a cynical speech that was full of hypocrisy. Rouhani spoke of human rights
even as Iranian forces are participating in the large-scale slaughter of
innocent civilians in Syria. He condemned terrorism even as the Iranian regime
is using terrorism in dozens of countries around the world.
He spoke of a nuclear program for civilian purposes even
as an IAEA report determines that the program has military dimensions and when
any rational person understands that Iran, one of the most oil-rich nations, is
not investing capital in ballistic missiles and underground nuclear facilities
in order to produce electricity.” Netanyahu added that “it is no coincidence
that the speech lacked both any practical proposal to stop Iran’s military
nuclear program and any commitment to fulfill UN Security Council decisions,”
warning that “this is exactly Iran’s strategy – to talk and play for time in
order to advance its ability to achieve nuclear weapons. Rouhani knows this
well.
He bragged that, a decade ago, he had succeeded in
misleading the West so that while Iran was holding talks, it simultaneously
advanced its nuclear program.” “The international community must test Iran not
by its words but by its actions,” Netanyahu insisted.
The Israeli delegation left the hall during Rouhani’s
speech, in order not to “grant legitimacy to a regime that does not recognize
the existence of the Holocaust and which publicly declares its desire to wipe
the State of Israel off the map.”
Responding to a note of protest from Treasury Minister
Yair lapid, who faulted the PM for ordering Israel’s diplomats to leave,
Netanyahu said: “As the Prime Minister of Israel, the state of the Jewish
people, I could not allow the Israeli delegation to be part of a cynical public
relations ploy by a regime that denies the Holocaust and calls for our
destruction.”
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/netanyahu-to-ministers-dont-comment-on-obama-rouhani-conversation/2013/09/28/
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/netanyahu-to-ministers-dont-comment-on-obama-rouhani-conversation/2013/09/28/
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