Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Iran must
not be allowed to become a nuclear threshold state • U.S. Undersecretary
of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman briefs Israeli officials
on Iran talks • You can't always get what you want, Sherman says.
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu at Sunday's cabinet meeting
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Photo credit: AFP |
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Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West
have raised deep concerns in Jerusalem that the talks are merely an
Iranian ploy to buy time and dupe the West, and will lead to no tangible
results.
At the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was worried "by the fact that
Iran actually believes it will realize its plan to become a nuclear
threshold state with untouched capabilities to enrich uranium and
develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, which it is continuing to
do uninterrupted."
"The combination of enrichment, weapons and
launch capabilities means that Iran is getting everything without giving
almost anything," Netanyahu said. "A permanent agreement must not
perpetuate this situation."
"Iran must be rid of its produce or launch
nuclear weapons. This has yet to be accomplished and without the
insistence of world powers, it will not be accomplished. I hope that
world powers will stand firm in the demand to prevent Iran from becoming
a nuclear threshold state."
Credit: Benny Pleban
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman visited Israel over the weekend and attempted to address such concerns. In private meetings before speaking with the press on Saturday, Sherman updated Netanyahu's representative, National Security Council head Yossi Cohen, and Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz on the talks with Iran.
Sherman, the head of the U.S. delegation in
the Iran nuclear negotiations, said on Saturday that she was in Israel
to get input, ideas and points of view about the talks and what is
critical is to ensure the security of Israel, the security of the United
States and the security of the world.
Touching on Netanyahu's demand that Iran must
not be allowed to enrich uranium and that if it was permitted to do so
it must be outside of Iran, Sherman told reporters: "I also want a lot
of things in life, it doesn't mean I get them."
"I assume the discussions between Netanyahu
and [U.S. President Barack Obama] will continue," she added. "There are
different viewpoints. It is important to understand, the differences are
about the tactics, the path, not the result we seek to achieve. As to
the result, that Iran will not be nuclear -- there is no disagreement,"
she said.
Regarding the situation on the ground, Sherman
said: "There is only one measure of success of a comprehensive
agreement with Iran and that is if an agreement means that Iran will
never obtain a nuclear weapon and that the international community will
have assurance in the exclusively peaceful nature of a nuclear program
in Iran. That is our objective; we have begun very tough negotiations
that will go on through July. We hope to get to a successful end and to a
comprehensive agreement at that time. We have set a framework and a
timetable for the negotiations but this is a very complex negotiation
and I very much look forward to the talks that I will have here in
Israel."
Sherman will be also travel Saudi Arabia, Abu
Dhabi and Dubai for consultations with the governments of those
countries as well as with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation
Council.
Sherman also addressed comments
last week by Obama's former adviser on Iran's nuclear program, Gary
Samore, who told Bloomberg that the nuclear talks had "an almost zero
chance of success."
Sherman said, "The point I took from the article is, are
there enough incentives and deterrence tools on the table in order to
reach a deal?"
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