Mediaboss Marketing

TEL AVIV

The public rift between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Iranian nuclear issue is often described as a personality dispute. But a senior Israeli official argued this week that the break has been building for more than two years and reflects a deep disagreement about how best to limit the threat of a rising Iran.

Yuval Steinitz, Israels minister of intelligence, outlined his governments view in an interview Wednesday. He said that the nuclear agreement contemplated by Obama would ratify Iran as a threshold nuclear-weapons state, and that the one-year breakout time sought by Washington wasnt adequate. And he stressed that these views arent new.

From the very beginning, we made it clear we had reservations about the goal of the negotiations, he explained. We thought the goal should be to get rid of the Iranian nuclear threat, not verify or inspect it.

Steinitz, who helps oversee Iran strategy for Netanyahu, said he understands the United States wants to tie Irans hands for a decade until a new generation takes power there. But he warns: Youre saying, okay, in 10 or 12 years Iran might be a different country. This is dangerous because it ignores that Iran is thinking like an old-fashioned superpower.

Netanyahus skepticism reached a tipping point last month when he concluded that the United States had offered so many concessions to Iran that any deal reached would be bad for Israel. He broke with Obama, first in a private phone call Jan. 12, and then in his public acceptance of an offer by GOP House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress on March 3 and, in effect, lobby against the deal.

The administration argues that the pact taking shape, although imperfect, is preferable to any realistic alternative. It would limit the Iranian program and allow careful monitoring of its actions. Angered by what it sees as Netanyahus efforts to sabotage the agreement, the administration decided in early February to limit the information it shared with Israel about its bargaining with Iran.

The discord goes back to 2012, when the Obama administration began secret contacts with Iran through Oman. The Israelis were angry that they werent informed and insulted that the United States would think they wouldnt find out through their intelligence channels. Netanyahu denounced the interim agreement, reached in November 2013, because it formally accepted that Iran could enrich uranium.

Despite Netanyahus view that it was a great mistake to accept any Iranian enrichment, Steinitz said that we got the impression that it might be symbolic. The initial figure [discussed by the United States and its negotiating partners] was a few hundred centrifuges. Now, he said, the United States is contemplating thousands. According to Israeli press reports, the United States has offered to allow Iran to operate at least 6,500 centrifuges.

Steinitz didnt dispute the U.S. argument that what matters is a package that includes the number and performance levels of the permitted centrifuges, the extent of dismantlement of non-permitted centrifuges and the size of Irans stockpile of enriched uranium. Breakout time is an equation with four variables, he said.

Link:
Why Netanyahu broke publicly with Obama over Iran - The ...