Obama administration: Netanyahu’s critique of Iran nuclear deal premature
Obama administration: Netanyahu’s critique of Iran nuclear deal premature | JPost | Israel News.
The Obama administration on Friday responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s harsh rejection of a deal being worked out between world powers and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear program, referring to the Israeli leaders comments as “premature.”
Traveling to New Orleans with the president, White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that “there is no deal” with Iran yet in Geneva.
“Any critique of the deal is premature,” Earnest added.
The White House statement came as US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Geneva meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton in attempts to close “the important gaps” that remain between the sides before a deal can be signed.
Upon landing in Geneva, Kerry, who broke off a visit with Netanyahu in Israel to fly to Geneva amid reports of an impending agreement Friday, said “I want to emphasize there is not an agreement at this point.”
Prior to leaving Israel, Kerry was told by Netanyahu that the deal in the works with Iran was unacceptable.
“I reminded him of his own words, that it is better not to reach a deal then to reach a bad deal,” Netanyahu said after the meeting. “The proposal being discussed now is a bad deal, a very bad deal. Iran is not asked to dismantle even one centrifuge, but the international community is easing sanctions on Iran for the first time in many years.”
According to Netanyahu Iran is getting everything it wants at this stage, and not giving anything in return, and this at a time when Iran is under intense pressure.
“I call on Secretary Kerry not to be in a hurry to sign, to wait and reconsider,” Netanyahu said. Repeating comments he said Thursday night, Netanyahu called this the “deal of the century” for Iran, but a bad and dangerous deal for the world.
Before meeting Kerry, Netanyahu said that he understands that the Iranians are “walking around very satisfied in Geneva, as well they should be, because they got everything, and paid nothing.”
“They wanted relief from sanctions after years of a grueling sanctions regime. They got that. They are paying nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability,” he said.
Netanyahu, in his harshest comments to date on the matter, said Israel “utterly rejects” the deal, “and what I am saying is shared by many, many in the region whether or not they express it publicly. Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to defend itself, to defend the security of its people.”
According to the proposed short-term deal, Iran would freeze its nuclear activities for the next six months, allowing for more time to reach a permanent agreement.
The Guardian reported that the “first-step agreement” is understood to include four key points:
* Iran would stop weapons-grade 20 percent uranium enrichment and turn its existing stockpile into oxide, a harmless material.
* Iran would be allowed to continue 3.5% enrichment needed for power stations, but limit the number of centrifuges being used. The deal would, however, not include any demand to remove or disable any other centrifuges.
* While still being allowed to work on its plutonium reactor at Arak, Iran would agree not to activate it for the duration of the six months. The plutonium reactor could provide for another route to nuclear weapons capability.
* Iran would not use its IR-2 centrifuges that are more advanced and capable of enriching uranium three-to-five times faster than the older model.
In exchange for these steps, the US would agree to ease some “reversible” economic sanctions, the Guardian reported, possibly by releasing some Iranian funds frozen in overseas accounts. In addition, the US could possibly relax restrictions on Iran’s petrochemical, motor and precious metals industries.
Iran has told Western powers that it wants them to consider easing oil and banking sanctions during the first phase of any interim nuclear deal they agree to, an Iranian delegate at talks between Tehran and six world powers said on Friday.
“We have announced to the West that in the first phase the issue of banking and oil sanctions must be considered,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi, a member of Iran’s negotiating team in Geneva, was quoted as saying by Iran’s Mehr news agency.
Jpost.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.
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