WarSclerotic

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “every right” to voice his opposition to a potential nuclear deal with Iran, but his fear that a deal would leave Israel vulnerable is unfounded, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday.

Kerry said he had great respect for Netanyahu and his concerns over the emerging deal with Iran. But Kerry maintained that instead of making Israel less safe, an accord with Iran would actually reduce the risks facing Israel.

“I have great respect for [Netanyahu’s] concerns about his country,” Kerry told reporters at a State Department news conference with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. “The prime minister should express his concerns and he has every right in the world to publicly state his position and defend what he believes is his interest.”

Kerry stressed that the U.S. is deeply committed to Israel’s security and sought to reassure Netanyahu, ordinary Israelis and members of Congress who are opposed to the proposed agreement.

“Nothing that we are doing here, in my judgment, will put Israel at any additional risk,” Kerry said. “In fact, let me make this clear, we believe it reduces risk.”

Israeli officials in Jerusalem dismissed Kerry’s assessment.

“Exactly the opposite [is true],” a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on Monday. “The agreement will endanger Israel and world peace as a whole.

“While [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov, Kerry and even [French President Francois] Hollande himself said they believe an agreement will be signed soon, we are fighting until the final moment to delegitimize it.”

Since word emerged earlier this month that an agreement with Iran may be close, Netanyahu has led a public campaign to oppose it. He has called the deal bad for Israel and a gift to Iran.

Yet Netanyahu and other government officials would not view the signing of a deal between world powers and Iran as a failure for Israeli diplomacy, as thwarting the deal was never set as the goal.

“Israel’s policy led to a number of significant achievements,” an Israeli official said.

“The Iranians are not in the position today that they were a few weeks ago. They tried to present themselves as peace-seekers with the right to nuclear development for peaceful purposes and energy production.

“But today, everyone understands that Iran’s nuclear development is for war purposes. No country, including those that will sign the agreement, if it is signed, will able to claim that this was a good achievement. At most, they will be able to say that they achieved the lesser of all evils, for now. This is significant. Today, leaders of world powers know that the burden of proof is on them [the Iranians]. This is an achievement that can be credited to Israel.”

Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Tuesday  that “more than Iran is deceiving the world, the world is willing to deceive itself.”

“We oppose the entire concept of an interim agreement,” Steinitz said at an energy conference.

“The main problem with the current interim agreement [being negotiated] is that Iran will receive legitimacy to remain a nuclear threshold state for the first six months. We’re in favor of a diplomatic solution that is real, credible and comprehensive.

“What is being demanded from Iran is a commitment to not produce nuclear weapons, but what should be demanded from Iran is a commitment to give up the ability to produce nuclear weapons,” Steinitz said.

On differences between Israel and the U.S. over Iran, Stenitz said these were a “debate among friends.”

International and Iranian negotiators are to meet again later this week in Geneva in hopes of concluding a deal but Kerry declined to predict if they would reach an agreement.

“I have no specific expectations with respect to the negotiations in Geneva except that we will negotiate in good faith and we will try to get a first-step agreement and hope that Iran will understand the importance of coming there prepared to create a document that can prove to the world that this is a peaceful program,” Kerry said.

Kerry said he would probably not be able to travel to Israel at the end of the week, as he had tentatively planned to do.

Netanyahu announced on Sunday that Kerry would be visiting Israel on Friday, but Kerry said his schedule would not allow for it.

Kerry said he would probably make the trip after the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

Meanwhile, in a telephone call on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Iranian President Hasan Rouhani there was a “real chance” for a nuclear deal.

“Vladimir Putin underlined that at the moment a real chance has appeared to find a solution to this long-running problem,” the Kremlin said in a statement after the Putin-Rouhani call.

Russia is one of the six world powers negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran.

Lavrov said on Monday that Iran was prepared to make moves that would allow a deal to be reached.

“The steps that Iran is prepared to set out as its commitments are quite, quite substantial and go in the direction of the demands of the international community at a much faster pace, in fact, than had been expected,” Lavrov said, according to Russia’s official gazette, Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Rouhani took a more cautious approach on Monday. According to Rouhani’s official website, “good progress” has been made in the recent talks with world powers, but “excessive demands could endanger a deal that would serve all sides.”

The Obama administration is still making efforts to ensure that Congress does not pass new sanctions on Iran as the talks in Geneva continue. Obama was to hold a meeting with Democratic and Republican Senate officials on the matter on Tuesday.