WarSclerotic

The Associated Press: Israeli PM Netanyahu unveils new unity government.

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press – 19 minutes ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a revamped coalition government on Tuesday, forming a broad alliance with the chief opposition party that could free his hand to take bold action on peace with the Palestinians and decide whether to attack Iran.

In a stunning reversal, Netanyahu called off plans to hold early parliamentary elections and struck an agreement with the rival Kadima Party. Netanyahu now presides over a coalition with 94 seats in the 120-member parliament, one of the broadest governments in Israeli history.

Netanyahu and Kadima’s leader, Shaul Mofaz, appeared together at a midday news conference, saying their alliance would bring much-needed stability to Israeli politics. They promised close cooperation on Iran and expressed hope that long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians would resume, though signs of differences on the Palestinian issue quickly surfaced.

Netanyahu’s current coalition, which had been remarkably stable since taking office in March 2009, has been riven by divisions in recent weeks over court orders to demolish two West Bank settlement outposts and to end draft exemptions for tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.

Unable to bridge these differences, Netanyahu announced Monday he would push for early elections in September, more than a year ahead of schedule. But in an overnight deal that stunned the nation, he instead joined forces with Kadima, the largest party in parliament with 28 seats.

“I was ready to go to elections,” Netanyahu said. “But when I learned that a very broad government can be established … I realized that stability can be restored. That is why I have decided to form a broad national unity government.”

Netanyahu said the new coalition would focus on four areas: ending controversial draft exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox males; reforming the volatile political system; protecting the economy; and promoting a “responsible” peace process with the Palestinians.

Peace talks have been stalled for more than three years over Israel’s policy of building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians, who claim both areas, have demanded a settlement freeze.

Netanyahu would not say whether he would now consider a settlement freeze. Instead, he repeated his calls for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to negotiations without any preconditions.

“I hope that President Abbas will take advantage of this opportunity,” he said.

Mofaz, however, said he would present new ideas to Netanyahu. Mofaz has suggested pursuing an interim arrangement with the Palestinians addressing border and security issues while a final deal can be reached.

Netanyahu also promised “serious and responsible” talks on Iran with Mofaz. Israel, like the West, thinks Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Netanyahu has hinted that Israel would be prepared to strike Iran’s nuclear program if it feels threatened. Mofaz, a former military chief and defense minister, has spoken out against an Israeli strike on Iran, though he has a history of reversing his position on key matters.

Netanyahu said he and Mofaz already have had many discussions about Iran and will continue to hold “serious and responsible” talks on the matter. As a former military chief, Mofaz’s opinion could carry great weight in a decision on whether to strike.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Iron Dome: Israeli necessity, American priority, strategic imperative – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Iron Dome is no guarantee that Palestinian extremists won’t pick a fight with Israel. But it makes it much more likely that Israel will only commit its soldiers to combat when it alone chooses.

By Howard L. Berman

Netanyahu: Unity with Kadima shows cabinet willing to face Israel’s toughest challenges – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

At Jerusalem press conference, Prime Minister says unity cabinet can promote revised Tal Law; Mofaz: Time has come to change Israel’s agenda.

By Haaretz

The newly formed unity government was created to advance the main issues facing Israel today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah u said in a joint press conference with Kadima head Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday, adding that a wide government could advance “a responsible peace process.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu and Mofaz reached a surprise agreement to form a national unity government, a decision which came as the Knesset was preparing to disperse for early elections, which were expected to be scheduled for September 4.

	Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz speaking at a joint news conference, May 8, 2012
	Photo by: Emil Salman

Netanyahu told reporters on Tuesday that the new unity government will bring stability to Israel.

“The State of Israel needs stability,” he said. “From the very beginning I wanted to continue to [the original date of the] elections, and when I saw that that stability was being undone I went for [early] elections,” Netanyahu said, adding he “jumped at the opportunity” to create the “widest government in Israel’s history.”

Netanyahu also spoke of those criticizing the deal, saying that “up until a few days ago, I was told that I wanted elections in order to escape the budget, the Tal Law, and the toughest questions facing Israel.”

Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Likud Knesset faction meeting.Olivier Fitoussi

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“And here were are together, Shaul and I and the rest of the coalition, saying we’re pulling together for four main issues: to pass a fair and equal replacement of the Tal Law; to pass a responsible budget; to change the system of governance; and, lastly, to try and promote a responsible peace process.”

Also speaking at the conference, Mofaz said that there were “times in the life of a nation in which it is required to take significant decisions. There are moments in a leader’s life in which he has to take decisions that have a personal significance.”

“The time has come to change the agenda. This is a move of unity which is important to Israel’s future. A coalition of 94 MKs could better deal with the challenges Israel’s future holds,” Mofaz added, saying: “We’re here to join hands, and face the challenges, and they are not easy.”

The Kadima chief said that Israel had to choose its path, adding that the foremost issues the country faced have “a solid majority in this Knesset. There’s a clear majority in Israel for creating an equation of [military or civil] service for all.”

“We will bring a new system of government from the 19th Knesset onwards, and that achievement itself is enough. The change could affect the entire Israeli way of life,” he added.

Under the agreement reached earlier on Tuesday, Kadima will join Netanyahu’s government and commit to supporting its policies through the end of its term in late 2013. Mofaz is expected to be appointed deputy prime minister, as well as minister without portfolio.

At the press conference, Netanyahu told reporters that the decision to form a unity government was made after early elections were announced.

The surprising move shocked Israeli politics, unleashing harsh criticism from opposition members, and praise from members of the Likud-led governing coalition.

President Shimon Peres praised the move and said that “a national unity government is good for the people in Israel.” A unity government will help Israel deal with the challenges it faces, he added.

Former leader of the opposition Tzipi Livni came out in criticism of the move on her Facebook page. “This morning I want say one sentence to each and every one of you. I know exactly what you feel right now after what happened last night – but remember that there is also another kind of politics, and it will win,” she wrote.

Israel Labor Party leader Shelly Yacimovich slammed the maneuver as “an alliance of cowards,” and the most ridiculous zig-zag in Israel’s political history, which no one will ever forget.

She also said that the move represented the end of Kadima, and, as such, a unique opportunity for the Israeli Labor Party to lead the opposition.

Netanyahu boosts Israel’s deterrence – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Analysis: New unity government reinforces Israeli deterrence ahead of possible strike in Iran

The unity deal worked out secretly by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz boosts our deterrence power on the Iranian front and Israel’s ability to press the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany not to compromise too much.

The new unity government will attest to very broad support for the Netanyahu government, while the prime minister’s and defense minister’s position on Iran’s nuclear program is widely known.

This fact was certainly not lost on the US Administration and European governments, which are very anxious about potential Israel moves that may hinder their economic recovery. After all, an Israeli strike in Iran could prompt oil prices, which are currently going down, to skyrocket.

On the domestic front, the decision to form a unity government has even greater value. First, the official forum of decision-makers on Iran – that is, the security cabinet – has been reinforced with another official who possesses great defense experience. Shaul Mofaz has served as defense minister and IDF chief of staff in the past, and recent conversations with him indicate that he will not rush to pull the trigger

Mofaz will be joining the forum of top eight government ministers, which will now turn into a forum of nine entrusted with taking informal decisions on critical security and diplomatic issues; this also includes the decision on whether to strike in Iran. What we have here is another experienced hand, which will improve the decision-making process on the defense front.

Should a decision to strike Iran be taken, the existence of a unity government will reduce the danger of criticism should the operation fail or lead to unexpected results.

In the final analysis, we can assert that the formation of the new government – assuming it will function properly and survive the crises expected in the coming months – boosts Israel’s deterrent power and upgrades its leadership’s decision-making ability on the security and diplomatic front, topped by the Iran issue.

However, we must keep in mind that the Ulpana affair and mostly the issue of drafting the haredim into the IDF have not yet been resolved. Only once the government proves that it can contend with this issues, it will also enjoy greater credibility and deterrent power on the security front.

After securing unity cabinet with Kadima, Netanyahu is now king of Israeli politics – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Senior Haaretz analyst Yossi Verter says that, after getting over initial feelings of disgust and nausea, you have to admit that Netanyahu has once again taught us all a lesson. He’s Israel’s number one politician, no doubt – by a mile.

By Yossi Verter

Twice in the last ten days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the political system gaping with its jaw dropped. The first was ten days ago, when it became apparent that Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman jointly, and secretly, advanced a move to dissolve the Knesset and move up general elections. The second time was at 1:30 A.M. on Tuesday morning, when nothing less than an atomic bomb was dropped witj the dramatic agreement that has inserted Kadima into the government and called off an early vote.

While we were sleeping, under all our noses, politicians and journalists alike, a wondrous political friendship has been forming over the last week between two bitter rivals: the prime minister and Likud chief Netanyahu, and opposition leader and Kadima head Shaul Mofaz. The former, out of great power. The latter, from severe weakness. All the rest was smoke and mirrors: Mofaz’s incessant and severe attacks against Netanyahu; Netanyahu’s election speech at the Likud conference; Mofaz’s consultations with party members on cancelling the primaries; and, above all, the parliamentary move in the Knesset to dissolve the Knesset, which turned out to be redundant from beginning to end. One big joke.

	Benjamin Netanyahu during discussions of a bill to dissolve the Knesset, May 7, 2012.
	Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi

For hours, Israel’s legislature, democracy’s abode, turned, unwittingly and not to its favor, into a theater, a façade. On the stage, the boys played the early-elections game, yapping and flapping, cursing and attacking, without even considering that behind the scenes Netanyahu, Mofaz, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and their confidents – Lior Horev for Mofaz, Nathan Eshel for Netanyahu – were patching together the unity cabinet of 2012-2013.

After getting over initial feelings of disgust and nausea, you have to admit that Netanyahu, again, taught us all a lesson. He is the number one politician, no doubt – by a mile. He bought Kadima, with its 28 MKs for a nothing, for two and a half coins, thus ensuring himself another 18 months in power, headed by a coalition of 94 MKs. No party can topple him. The new Netanyahu government is made of one hundred tons of solid concrete.

What’s in it for the state? The approval of a (hopefully adequate) replacement to the Tal Law, which expires at the end of July; passing a restricted budget; and passing a law to change Israel’s system of government. Two big questions rise following this deal: Iran – will the formation of this super-wide cabinet advance the option of a strike against Iran (despite the fact that Mofaz objects to such a move), and the peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Should we expect a breakthrough? It’s doubtful. Not before the U.S. presidential elections in November.

If the two main clauses in the agreement – a Haredi enlistment law and a law to change the system of government – are actually realized, Netanyahu may turn into the king of Israel. Meanwhile, he’s certainly worthy of the title ‘king of the political system.’ We saw it in January 2011, when, together with Barak, he orchestrated the Labor split, which, in turn, solidified his own cabinet. We saw it again when on Monday afternoon, he opened the Likud conference with a vague comment, one which could only be understood in retrospect: “The Israeli people want stability, the Israeli people will get stability.”

Mofaz, on the other hand, proved that he fits the title of “hitchhiker,” given to him by Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar in a meeting to ratify the Kadima head as opposition leader five weeks ago. After his elections, he swore to the author of these lines that he would never join this government, which “embodies all that is wrong in the State of Israel.” He declared that he would be the one to lead the next summer’s social protests. So he promised, he never promised to keep his promise. The polls that predicted the imminent demise of Kadima, along with the setting of September 4 as the date of the new elections, led him straight into the arms of the “liar,” as he recently called Netanyahu in an outburst a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. When Mofaz is sworn in as the senior vice prime minister, it will probably end the shortest term ever of an opposition leader.

Labor chief Shelly Yacimovich is expected to fill his shoes. She will get a lot of exposure, a generous budget for her activities, an armored car, and husky security guards to clear her path and to question her visitors. But she’s also the biggest loser of this agreement: the 18 Knesset seats that polls have predicted for her in an upcoming elections will have to wait until Autumn 2013, and you never know what’ll happen until then. Yacimovich at least has the opposition leadership (even if it is a shriveled, thin, powerless, 26-member opposition), but what does Yair Lapid have? What will he do to keep himself busy until the elections? How will he keep the torch [lapid] from blowing out and keep on burning? Will he be even relevant in 18 months? Well, probably not. This is where his story ends.

Exactly four months ago, on January 8, Lapid deserted his seat as presenter of Channel 2’s “Ulpan Shishi” [Friday night studio, the channel’s leading news magazine] with elections looming in the background. He meant well, even if he made mistakes along the way and committed some errors, the last of which was that ridiculous, anti-democratic, and Ceausescu-esque party guidelines he had prepared. On any account, Lapid’s time was now. In 18 months, it will be a whole other opera.

At the Likud party meeting, which began around 2 A.M.on Tuesday at the Knesset, most of the MKs welcomed Netanyahu with applause. They were relieved. At the discussion, MK Miri Regev suggested that the response to the High Court’s ruling, effectively forcing the state to clear five houses at the Ulpana Hill West Bank outpost by July 1, Israel must assert its sovereignty on all the settlements.

Netanyahu looked at her wearily, and said: “Miri, but we postponed the elections.”

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 7, 2012, 10:42 PM (GMT+02:00)

Qader anti-ship missile for Gaza

Iran is working at speed to give the Jihad Islami, its radical Palestinian arm in the Gaza Strip, a strong military edge over the ruling Hamas which it no longer trusts, debkafile’s exclusive military sources report.  Tehran is motivated by two objectives:

1.  Because of its growing distance from the Assad regime in Syria, Hamas can no longer be relied on to support the Islamic Republic’s cause and strike Israel or US Middle East targets if the latter go to war on  Iran’s nuclear program.
One of Tehran’s top strategic priorities now is therefore to set Jihad Islami up as the spearhead of a potential attack on Israel instead of Hamas from the Gaza Strip and its Mediterranean coast.
2.  Partly also as a rejoinder to the Qatari and Saudi arms shipments channeled to the Syrian rebels through Turkey, Iran is matching the level and quality of those arms deliveries by its own consignments through Sinai or by sea to the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian extremist group.
Those consignments have two parts:
The first entails the establishment of a line of radar-guided, shore-to-sea missiles along the Gaza coast – to prevent Israel’s missile ships getting near enough to the enclave from the Mediterranean to shell shore targets – and as a barrier against Israeli armored or special forces landings.

Iranian missile experts are on the spot setting up the missile deployments and organizing the logistics for their transfer from storage to preset launching sites. Scores of Jihad Islami fighters are undergoing special course in their use at Revolutionary Guards centers while Iranian instructors in Gaza are showing them how to use their radar systems.

For the second, Iranian and Hizballah missile engineers are working on magnifying the explosive punch, range and targeting precision of the estimated 15,000 Qassam missiles in the Jihad Islami’s armory.

To this end, they re building for the terrorists a military industry with production lines which for the first time will give them the capacity for the high-speed serial production of dozens of Qassam’s instead of producing them one at a time in small foundries.
Once those production lines are working, Jihad Islami can double the intensity of its missile attacks on Israeli locations from 100 to 200 per day. Their range has also been improved so as to bring Tel Aviv and its southern environs within reach of upgraded Qassams launched from the Gaza Strip.

According to debkafile’s military sources, Iran and Jihad Islami welcome Israel’s sudden decision to hold an early election on September 4 because they believe its leaders will be too busy campaigning to interfere with the Iranian-Palestinian military buildup going forward apace in the Gaza Strip. By the time the next Israeli government is in place, most likely headed by the incumbent Binyamin Netanyahu, their new deployment and armaments will already be in place.

Forget That No-October-Surprise-Iran Attack Business I Was Talking About Before – Jeffrey Goldberg – International – The Atlantic.

Bibi Netanyahu seems to have solidified his coalition through 2013 by bringing in the Kadima Party, formerly headed by his arch-foe Tzipi Livni, now headed by his not-so-arch foe Shaul Mofaz. If the reports out of Israel are true, this means no election September 4, and it means that Netanyahu can proceed apace with whatever he’s thinking about doing re: Iran’s nuclear sites. This is not to say that he brought Kadima into his coalition to clear the way for an attack; Mofaz — Iranian-born, by the way — is on record as opposing an Iran strike, though people I speak to say he would back such a strike in a crunch (namely, if he saw proof Iran was rapidly approaching the “zone of immunity,” in which it could enrich uranium in impregnable bunkers). In any case, all this happened because Livni lost the leadership of Kadima. She and Netanyahu could not have coexisted in the same government. On the Let, there seems to be some unhappiness on the left about this deal:

Meretz head Zahava Gal-On expressed outrage over the surprise move, calling it a “mega-stinking maneuver by a prime minister who wants to avoid elections and a desperate opposition chairman facing a crash.”

Mega-stinking! That’s much worse than regular stinking.

The left, of course, doesn’t matter very much in Israel these days. (This unity government is a particular challenge for a new party created by the television personality Yair Lapid.)  For Mofaz, this is a deal that saves his party until it can be reintegrated into the Likud (Kadima, created by the former prime minister and Likud splittist Ariel Sharon, hasn’t had much reason to exist) and Bibi gets stability. And stability is what he likes, for its own sake, and also because he would want to lead as broad a coalition as possible should the Iran issue come to a head.

US House set to OK $1 billion for Israel anti-missile programs | The Times of Israel.

Bill spurred by Iron Dome’s success in repelling Gaza rockets

The Iron Dome system in action near Ashdod (photo credit: Flash90)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The US House of Representatives defense appropriations subcommittee is set to approve nearly $1 billion for Israeli and joint Israeli-US missile defense programs.

“This funding level is the highest ever appropriated in a single year for these life-saving programs,” Rep. Steve Rothman (D-NJ), a member of the committee, said in a statement.

Some $680 million of the $947 million set to be approved Tuesday in a session of the defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will go to the Iron Dome short-range anti-missile system, a result of legislation initiated by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), respectively the chairwoman and senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The bill was spurred by Iron Dome’s success in repelling a barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip earlier this year and the Obama administration’s readiness to consider further funds for the project.

The remaining $269 million will go to the short-range David’s Sling and long-range Arrow anti-missile programs, representing a hike from the $100 million proposed earlier this year in the Obama administration’s budget.

Those programs are joint US-Israel projects, while Iron Dome is an Israeli project, although congressional appropriators have expressed interest in obtaining US proprietary rights to Iron Dome.

PM’s political masterstroke buys him room for maneuver. How will he use it? | The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu never wanted early elections. But is staving them off more than a tactical victory?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: Amit Shabi/Flash90)

The fury on the left was easy to understand. Horowitz’s own party, Meretz, might not have got a significant boost from elections on September 4. But the main center-left party, Labor, was heading for a healthy upsurge, as was new political leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Kadima, that unreliable, hard-to-define centrist faction looked to be disintegrating.

The Netanyahu-Mofaz deal changes all that. And the anger on the left is only part of the reason for the pleasure Netanyahu must be feeling at what he and his supporters will doubtless depict as a political masterstroke.

At the eleventh hour, just before his colleagues were set to vote the 18th Knesset into history, Netanyahu achieved a whole slew of tactical victories. He widened his coalition to include the largest party in parliament, signing the deal with Mofaz that he and the former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni could not bring themselves to ratify, no matter how beneficial each might have believed it to be for their parties and the nation. He now heads a vast coalition, in which the minor parties immediately muster less influence, and have consequently less capacity to try to manipulate the national agenda for their narrower needs.

Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman may have quickly welcomed the deal, but it reduces his party’s ability to threaten coalition crises over legislation such as the successor to the Tal Law on national service for the ultra-Orthodox.

Netanyahu has also spared himself a battle with the right-wing of his own party over the selection of a Knesset slate for early elections. That’s a battle he’ll yet have to fight, but one he can now prepare for with more leisure. He saw at the Likud convention on Sunday that influence within the party is shifting to the right. For now, he can shelve the problem, though it will come back to haunt him if he leaves it for too long.

In Mofaz, he has a partner who demonstrably wants to sit in government, and with whom he quite plainly can find a common and expedient language. Mofaz might have tried to drive a harder bargain. He could have pushed for more Kadima cabinet seats, and for a more senior ministry of his own. Evidently, though, he wanted a deal done quickly — just as Netanyahu did. The last thing Mofaz wanted was to face the voters with Kadima heading for only 12 or so seats. For him, this partnership delays the day of reckoning for a party in freefall.

Netanyahu has now avoided the early elections that would have seen Labor likely soaring from the 13 seats it won last time to 17 or 18 — the second largest party in the Knesset, and led by a credible champion of social justice in Shelly Yachimovich. And Lapid, the ex-TV news anchor, will have to cool his heels a while now; Netanyahu will hope the Lapid bubble will burst long before the old-new scheduled election date in late 2013.

The prime minister, with Kadima at his side, is also now potentially capable of taking a more centrist position on dealings with the Palestinians and over settlements. It’s by no means clear that he wants to do so. But he has room for maneuver now if he wishes to use it. And the Americans and the rest of the international community will be well aware of the fact.

Many pundits felt Netanyahu and Livni did the Israeli electorate a disservice in not building a unity government after the 2009 elections. That coalition might have introduced electoral reform, tackled the issue of social inequality, drawn up territorial red lines for dealing with the Palestinians, and more widely represented Israelis on major issues such as facing the challenge of Iran. Now, more than three years later, some of those opportunities may still be there.

Alternatively, the Netanyahu-Mofaz partnership could come to be recognized as a cynical exercise in narrow political expediency — as MK Horowitz immediately branded it — one that made the prime minister’s life a little easier, staved off the collapse of a party that had outlived its purpose, and maintained a damaging leadership paralysis for an Israel confronted by a worrying array of threats.

Netanyahu never really wanted early elections. Now that he’s avoided them, how is he going to use the time?

EU tells Iran it ‘must’ suspend atom activity – Israel News, Ynetnews.

European Union reiterates demand that Islamic Republic halts uranium enrichment, days after Tehran says it has no intention to do so

Reuters

Back and forth – The European Union told Iran on Monday it “must” suspend uranium enrichment, a few days after the Islamic state ruled out doing just that, as Tehran and the West engaged in diplomatic shadow-boxing ahead of nuclear talks this month.

The United States called on Iranto take “urgent practical steps” to build confidence during negotiations with world powers on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran and the six major powers resumed discussions last month in Istanbul after a gap of more than a year – a chance to ease escalating tension and avert the threat of a new Middle East war – and both sides described the atmosphere as positive.

The next meeting between the powers – the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany – and Iran is to take place on May 23 in the Iraqi capital. Iranian officials say they are “optimistic” about making progress.

But with Iran seeking an end to sanctions and Western states reluctant to ease the pressure they credit with bringing Tehran to the negotiating table, diplomats are already playing down the chances of a settlement in Baghdad.

Stepping stone towards long-term deal

Western officials fear Iran may be hardening its demand for relief from sanctions which have been tightened over the past year to target its oil exports, and say the next round of talks will at best serve as a stepping stone towards a long-term deal.

They want to see Iran take firm action to allay their concerns over its nuclear program and curb its processing of uranium before considering relaxing punitive steps on Tehran.

“A lot of people are talking the Baghdad talks up. We are also hopeful. But it is important to remain realistic,” one European diplomat said. “This will be a start, not an end.”

At the meeting in Vienna to discuss the 189-nation nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), US envoy Robert Wood expressed concern over what he called “Iran’s persistent failure” to comply with its obligations under the pact.

“We seek a sustained process that produces concrete results, and call on Iran to take urgent practical steps to build confidence and lead to compliance with all its international obligations,” Wood told delegates.

The West wants verifiable assurances from Tehran that it is not seeking to develop atomic arms – for example, by accepting much more intrusive UN inspections and limiting its enrichment capacity.

West says Iran stonewalling

Israel and the United States have not ruled out military action to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons if diplomacy fails to resolve the long-running row.

Iran denies having a weapons agenda, saying it is enriching uranium solely for peaceful energy purposes, not for bombs.

Iran “is strongly committed to the objective of preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons under its NPT obligations,” Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said in a speech.

Soltanieh told Reuters last week that Iran would “never” suspend enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes, and saw no reason to close the Fordow underground site which it has used to expand higher-grade nuclear activity.

The UN Security Council has demanded in a series of resolutions since 2006 that Iran suspend all enrichment.

Many analysts say a negotiated solution will require compromises on both sides: Iran would be allowed to continue some lower-level enrichment if it accepts much more intrusive UN nuclear inspections to make sure it has no weapons aims.

But the EU, which includes European heavyweights France, Germany and Britain, showed no sign of backing down on the suspension demand in its statement at the Vienna meeting.

“Iran must suspend its enrichment activities and heavy water related projects, including research and development,” Gyorgyi Martin Zanathy, head of the EU delegation, said.

Daniel Keohane of FRIDE, a European thinktank, said the best outcome in Baghdad would be a “fleshing out of issues” that would be a part of a deal but the “danger is that the Iranian position can harden” during that period.