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DEBKAfile Special Report April 18, 2012, 2:05 PM (GMT+02:00)

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: A nuclear weapon is a sin…

Officials in Jerusalem angrily dismissed reports of a breakthrough in last Saturday’s nuclear negotiations in Istanbul between six world powers (P5+1) and Iran and most emphatically the claim that “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played his expected role in this choreography” by criticizing the negotiators for giving Iran a five-week freebie for continuing enrichment without limitation, as cited in a Washington Post article on Wednesday, April 18, by the columnist David Ignatius.
Iran is presented as ready to agree to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent and halt work at its underground facility for higher enrichment near Qom, and export its stockpile of highly enriched uranium for final processing to 20 percent for use in medical isotopes. Israeli sources say this report is false: Far from this being the shape of an eventual settlement, it was the shape of American demands relayed to Tehran in side-channels going via Paris and Vienna. Israel was never informed of Iran accepting this formula or its presentation to the Istanbul meeting.

Above all, they stressed, Netanyahu has not and will not play a role in any choreography of this kind staged by the Obama administration.
The Americans appear to have been taken in by the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s public pledge in February not to commit the “grave sin” of building a nuclear weapon as representing the Islamic regime’s face-saver for caving in to US pressure. The WP article is indeed captioned” “The stage is set for a deal with Iran.” Nothing, say debkafile‘s military and intelligence sources, is farther from the truth. According to our Iranian sources, there is no sign of the Iranians caving in.
The article itself appears to represent Washington’s comeback for a radio interview aired a few hours earlier, Tuesday, April 17, by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya’alon, in which he sharply criticized the Obama administration for its handling of the nuclear dispute with Iran: “We (Israel) no longer believe in the Americans, and on the Iran issue, we are not in the same boat.”

“Three years ago, Iran had 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium; today it has five and a half tons,” he pointed out.

Ya’alon also warned that after the way the proceedings went in Istanbul, right after the second round of talks on May 23 in Baghdad, “Israel will review its steps,”
Citing the classical Hebrew adage: If I do not watch out for myself, who will? (אם אין אני לי מי לי?) , he noted: “Obama too has said Israel has the right to self-defense.”

The deputy prime minister was the first Israeli national figure to suggest that, after May 23, the Netanyahu government would approach a decision on the date for a countdown to an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

Yaalon certainly said enough to cause some agitation in Washington, judging by the flood of phone calls debkafile’s sources report coming in from Washington with requests for clarifications.
Earlier that Tuesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in another radio interview that the“P5+1” group’s talks with Iran must result in a clear-cut resolution, the end of Iran’s nuclear program. He did not believe they would, although he hoped to be proved wrong.
The two Israeli ministers would not have delivered their downbeat comments if indeed US talks with Iran over and under the negotiating table had achieved, or even approached, the breakthrough depicted in Washington.

US Senate looks to keep pressure… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

By REUTERS

04/18/2012 04:56

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Congress should pass new oil-, banking-related sanctions to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuke program; Republicans, Democrats considering amendments to month-old sanctions bill.

Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday Congress should pass a proposed package of new oil- and banking-related sanctions to keep up the pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

Aides from Reid’s office met on Tuesday with undisclosed “outside parties” to discuss the sanctions, his spokesman said, describing the meeting as “routine.”

“Each day that goes by without Iran feeling more of our censorship, I think that’s too bad for the world and helpful to Iran,” Reid said. “We need to move forward on this as quickly as possible.”

Last month, Reid had insisted that a package of penalties developed by the Senate Banking Committee should advance without amendments to speed its passage.

Several Senators from both parties wanted the opportunity to make changes.

Republican Senator Mark Kirk has a package of amendments he wants to propose, including one that would ban insurers from covering shipments of Iranian oil to countries that fail to make “significant” cuts to their purchases from Tehran.

Ambiguous results from nuclear talks in Istanbulbetween Iran, the United States and five other world powers this past weekend further galvanized lawmakers’ resolve to pursue new sanctions.”My staff is meeting with interested parties to see if there’s something that can be worked out,” Reid told reporters on Tuesday, noting he still believed it was best to proceed without amendments “unless we can get agreement from basically everyone.

After Netanyahu’s criticism, U.S. official says Israeli PM was briefed on Iran talks – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

In upcoming round of talks, six major powers will demand an Iranian commitment to suspend uranium enrichment at 20 percent, says senior American official.

In their upcoming round of talks next month with Iran over its nuclear program, the six major powers will demand an Iranian commitment to suspend uranium enrichment at the relatively high level of 20 percent, a senior American official said. There has been concern in the West that enrichment at 20 percent would put the Islamic Republic closer to levels required for nuclear weapons.

Nuclear research plants require enrichment levels of 3.5 percent.

	Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
	Photo by: Emil Salman

The initial round of talks with Iran took place on Saturday in Istanbul with senior representatives of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, also participated in the meeting, which resulted in a joint commitment to pursue further discussions in Baghdad on May 23.

The senior American official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was fully briefed both before and after the Istanbul meeting on the strategy being adopted by the six major powers.

On Sunday Netanyahu was critical of the outcome of the talks, saying that the Iranians had been given a “freebie” by the major powers to pursue their nuclear program without limitations until the Baghdad talks.

The American official told Haaretz that in the weeks prior to the Istanbul conference, detailed discussions were held with Israel, both face to face and by telephone, on coordination of the approach to the talks. In addition, it was noted that the head of the U.S. delegation to the talks, Wendy Sherman, fully briefed Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, by phone several hours after the talks concluded in Turkey.

According to French and German diplomats with knowledge of the talks in Turkey, officials from French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office, as well as those from the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, also briefed officials from Netanyahu’s bureau over plans for negotiations with Iran both before and after the Istanbul meeting.

Prior to Saturday’s meeting in Turkey, it was made clear to Israel that the initial round in Istanbul was seen as an opportunity to gauge Iran’s seriousness in engaging in negotiations without an expectation that the parties would take immediate concrete steps. Netanyahu’s criticism of the five-week period between the talks in Turkey and the second round in Baghdad therefore took officials by surprise, not only in Washington but also in Berlin, Paris and London, particularly over his statement that Iran had been given a “freebie.”

The senior American official said the United States understands Netanyahu’s desire for the international community to take as tough a stance as possible with the Islamic Republic but does not accept the criticism that the Istanbul talks gave Iran a “freebie.” The official said the six powers represented in the talks in Turkey, including Russia and China, took a tough, unified stance that Iran must take the first steps to carry out confidence-building measures to prove its seriousness.

In talks between U.S. administration officials and Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, as well as with Netanyahu’s advisers, it was made clear that the Americans have no intention of allowing discussions to go on for an unlimited time frame. In addition, the Americans clarified that discussions would be held with lower-level Iranian representatives during the five weeks between the two rounds of formal talks with Iran, and that therefore the talks would not be a waste of time from the American perspective.

These talks will also be held between Helga Schmidt, senior advisor to Ashton, and Iran’s deputy negotiator Ali Bagheri. According to the American official, in these honest talks it will be made clear to the Iranians that they are expected to notify the Baghdad discussions that they are taking a trust-building move in the shape of suspending the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent.

The senior U.S. official emphasized that an agreement is in place between the six world powers that even if Iran carries out trust-building steps and suspends uranium enrichment to 20 percent, it will not receive anything in return. He added that it was made clear to the Iranians in these discussions that there would be no suspension of sanctions on the part of the United States and the European Union, nor would there be a postponement of the European oil embargo, which will come into effect on July 1.

The representatives of America, France, Hamburg and Britain who participated in the Istanbul talks were surprised by the Iranian reaction, which was relatively committal. “For the first time, the Iranians did not beat around the bush, and agreed to talk directly about their nuclear program,” said one senior European official. “We did not hear their regular accusations on the hypocrisy and arrogance of the West and their stance focused on the continuation of a civilian nuclear program and the existence of sanctions.”

The senior American official also noted that Washington is satisfied with the Iranian approach to the first round of talks. There were signs that the Iranians have serious intentions, the official explained, adding that such signs have not been seen for a long time. However, he emphasized that Iran has not yet taken the necessary steps to regain the trust of the international community, and that this will only become clear in the second round of talks in Bagdad, when Iran will be required to take physical steps – not just talk.