WarSclerotic

Iran, the US and others, and Avigdor Lieberman | Jerusalem Post – Blogs.

Ira Sharkansky

This is not the time for anything close to a complete assessment of the agreement with Iran.

Commentators can find points where Israel’s insistence might have shaped the final deal, but so far the tendency of Israeli officials and party leaders–not all of them right of center–is to complain that the agreement is bad, too lenient, and gives Iran everything it wanted.

The Prime Minister said that Israel is not bound by the agreement, and must assure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.

The US wanted an agreement, with cynics seeing it as Obama’s strategy of getting a second Nobel Peace Prize.

Avigdor Lieberman joins the criticism of the agreement, but he also emphasizes that Israel must be mindful of its dependence on the US  He says that we must be careful not to push big brother too hard, but to reconsider things in light of this deal, and look around for others with whom we can advance our interests.

His comments demand attention, insofar as he has returned to his previous position as Foreign Minister after a long career with the police, prosecutors and judges. Some of those who dealt with him over the course of 10-14 years remain convinced that he should have been judged guilty on one or another charge of corruption.

Speculation about Lieberman is competing on our agenda with speculation about Iran. Comments about his intentions and future may be no more reliable than what we hear about the prospects of an agreement that depends on the intentions of numerous governments, the capacity of corporate giants to press for access to the Iranian market, the intricacies of nuclear installations, Iranian efforts to keep some hidden, and commitments about more penetrating inspections. Also worrying is the man the Iranians call their Supreme Leader, who most recently called Israelis rabid dogs and led a crowd chanting Death to America.

Lieberman is working to refurbish his reputation and gain traction as Israel’s diplomat in chief, with responsibilities going beyond what was allowed during his previous service. Then he had the title of Foreign Minister, but the leading diplomats were Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Almost all agree that Lieberman has his eye on the larger prize of prime minister, but Netanyahu shows no signs of tiring.

Among Lieberman’s political maneuvers are his criticism of Netanyahu as being too outspoken against the US, and his  alliance with SHAS leader Ariyeh Deri in local elections. Despite their lack of success, this cooperation signaled Lieberman’s effort to broaden his constituency beyond the Russian community. Given the ultra-Orthodox constituency of Deri, it also questions Lieberman’s commitments to the Russians’  desires for easier routes to conversion, and–for those not interested in converting–the possibility of civil marriage.

Israelis hear “Russia” and “Putin” when Lieberman speaks about broadening Israel’s perspective beyond what must be its principal linkage with the US.

That is no surprise given Lieberman’s background, Mother tongue, and apparent rapport with the Russian leadership. However, tensions between the US and Russia lead to questions about his balancing of a continued dependence on the US with his concern to look elsewhere.

Also in the air, and complicating any easier road upward for Avigdor Lieberman are tensions in the alliance between Likud and Lieberman’s party Israel Beiteinu (Israel our Home), Likud activists feel that Netanyahu gave too much in order to arrange an alliance that produced “Likud our Home,” but failed to gain any electoral benefits.

In the context of aging Russians and the assimilation of their children into the Israeli mainstream, Lieberman may see his future as a leader of Likud. He was among the party leaders as Director-General of Likud, and then Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office during Netanyahu’s first term.

Since then Lieberman has spent years as the head of a political party sometimes close to Likud and sometime not so close. Now his maneuvering must deal with Likud ministers more firmly attached to the mass of party activists, who see themselves as Netanyahu’s most likely successor.

While all this is going on, there has been a diplomatic breaking apart of Egypt and Turkey, and reasons to wonder about the responses to the Iran deal by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States.

With our Foreign Minister saying that it is a time to reconsider Israel’s place in the world, there is a lot to ponder, including where Palestine sits on the evolving agendas of those claiming to be concerned with future of the Middle East.

So many worries, and this is only the first day of the week.

Lawmakers react to Iran nuclear deal | Fox News.

Rouhani says nuclear deal with West allows Iran to enrich uranium | JPost | Israel News.

11/24/2013 10:47

President said success of talks due to the ‘guidelines offered’ by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday the deal reached with six world powers in Geneva “recognized Iran’s nuclear rights” by allowing it to continue to enrich uranium and that Tehran’s enrichment activities would proceed similar to before.

He said in a statement in the Iranian capital broadcast live on state Press TV that talks on a “comprehensive agreement will start immediately” and that Iran had a strong will for them to commence right away.

The president also said the success of the talks so far was due to the “guidelines offered” by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei said on Sunday the deal reached with world powers in Geneva was the basis for further progress, and the prayers of the Iranian nation had contributed towards its success.

“This can be the basis for further intelligent actions. Without a doubt the grace of God and the prayers of the Iranian nation were a factor in this success,” Khamenei wrote in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani published by the IRNA state news agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at a Sunday morning press conference in Geneva that Iran will never stop enriching uranium. Zarif told reporters that enrichment will continue and “will be a part of any agreement now and in the future,” although halting it is a significant portion of the agreement. Although many restrictions will be implemented over the next 6 months, it will not completely cease.

He continuously insisted that is it Iran’s “inalienable right” and urged other countries other countries to “recognize and respect those who decide by their own free will” to develop nuclear technology. He added that the international community should “refrain from imposing restrictions, when we are exercising our right.”

When asked about Israel’s potential reaction to the deal, Zarif avoided naming the country, but said that there is no reason to react negatively. “The deal is geared toward resolving a problem that has cast its shadow cast over entire world, and this region. I do not see any justification to be concerned about the resolution of a problem.”

“We are trying to move forward with the international community,” he added. “They must accept fact that threat of war is illegal. War is unnecessary,imprudent and illegal. If we can prevent that, it is an accomplishment. The force option is no longer on the table.”

Netanyahu calls Iranian deal ‘historic mistake’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

PM reacts to deal with Iran, calling it ‘historic mistake’ to which ‘Israel is not bound while Iran is committed to destroying us,’ promises Israel will defend itself. Rohani also responds to agreement, praising recognition of Iran’s nuclear rights, as US attempts to quell Israeli fears

News agencies

At the beginning of the government’s weekly meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the interim agreement reached Sunday between world powers and Iran in Geneva.

The agreement reached in Geneva is not a historic deal, but rather a historic mistake. It turns the world into a much scarier place, because now the world’s most dangerous regime is taking significant steps towards acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapon.”

According to the prime minister “this is the first time the world’s leading powers have agreed to uranium enrichment while ignoring Security Council resolution which they led and years worth of sanctions which contain the key to a peaceful diplomatic solution. These sanctions are now being removed in return for cosmetic concessions which can be undone by the Iranians within weeks.”

Netanyahu continued, claiming that “this agreement’s ramifications threaten a number of nations of which Israel is one. Israel is not bound to this agreement while Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel. Israel has the right to protect itself in the face of any threat. I wish to reiterate that as the prime minister of Israel – Israel will not allow Iran to develop nuclear military capabilities.”

Nuclear rights

Meanwhile Iranian President Hassan Rohani said Sunday that Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers signaled an acceptance of uranium enrichment in Iran and that punitive sanctions were starting to crumble.

“Iran’s right to uranium enrichment on its soil was accepted in this nuclear deal by world powers,” he said in a speech broadcast live on state television. “The structure of the sanctions against Iran has begun to crack.”

Acording to him, talks on a “comprehensive agreement will start immediately” and that Iran had a strong will for them to commence right away, adding that the “Iranian nation has never sought nuclear weapons.”

The president also said the success of the talks so far was due to the “guidelines offered” by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Netanyahu vs. Rohani (Photo: AP)

 On his part, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday the interim agreement was the basis for further progress, and the prayers of the Iranian nation had contributed towards its success.

“This can be the basis for further intelligent actions. Without a doubt the grace of God and the prayers of the Iranian nation were a factor in this success,” Khamenei wrote in a letter to President Hassan Rohani published by the IRNA state news agency.

Bomb blocker

An agreement between Iran and major powers would make it harder for Iran to make a dash to build a nuclear weapon and would make Israel and other U.S. allies safer, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.

Speaking after the agreement was struck between Iran and six major powers, Kerry also said that while US President Barack Obama would not take off the table the possible use of force against Iran, he believed it was necessary first to exhaust diplomacy.

Addressing one of the most contentious issues in the 10-year nuclear standoff, Kerry said that the deal does not include any recognition of an Iranian “right” to enrich uranium.

Obama hailed the deal’s provisions as key to preventing Iran from proliferating. “Simply put, they cut off Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb,” he told reporters.

Obama described the deal as putting “substantial limitations” on a nuclear program that the United States and its allies fear could be turned to nuclear weapons use.

“While today’s announcement is just a first step, it achieves a great deal,” Obama said. “For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back.”

Although the deal lowered tensions between the US and Iran, friction points remain – notably Iran’s support of the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad. The United States has accused Iran of supporting terrorism throughout the region and of widespread human rights violations.

A White House statement called the nuclear agreement an “initial, six-month step.”

Specifically, the statement said the deal limits Iran’s existing stockpiles of enriched uranium, which can be turned into the fissile core of nuclear arms.

The statement also said the accord curbs the number and capabilities of the centrifuges used to enrich and limits Iran ability to “produce weapons-grade plutonium” from a reactor in the advanced stages of construction.

The statement also said Iran’s nuclear program will be subject to “increased transparency and intrusive monitoring.”

“Taken together, these first step measures will help prevent Iran from using the cover of negotiations to continue advancing its nuclear program as we seek to negotiate a long-term, comprehensive solution that addresses all of the international community’s concerns,” said the statement.

In return, the statement promised “limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible (sanctions) relief” to Iran, noting that “the key oil, banking, and financial sanctions architecture, remains in place.” And it said any limited sanctions relief will be revoked and new penalties enacted if Iran fails to meet its commitments.

Those conditions have been highlighted by the Obama administration in its efforts to persuade Congress to hold off on any new sanctions and give the Iran accord a chance to prove its worth.

Reuters, AFP and the Associated Press contributed to this report

White House held secret talks with Iran for past year | The Times of Israel.

High-level, face-to-face meetings were kept from Israel and allies

By Bradley Klapper, Julie Pace and Matthew Lee November 24, 2013, 8:34 am

US President Barack Obama speaking to his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, on Friday Sept. 27, marking the first time the two countries’ leaders engaged each other since 1979. (photo credit: Pete Souza via White House Twitter page)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Iran secretly engaged in a series of high-level, face-to-face talks over the past year, in a high-stakes diplomatic gamble by the Obama administration that paved the way for the historic deal sealed early Sunday in Geneva aimed at slowing Tehran’s nuclear program, The Associated Press has learned.

The discussions were kept hidden even from America’s closest friends, including its negotiating partners and Israel, until two months ago, and that may explain how the nuclear accord appeared to come together so quickly after years of stalemate and fierce hostility between Iran and the West.

But the secrecy of the talks may also explain some of the tensions between the US and France, which earlier this month balked at a proposed deal, and with Israel, which is furious about the agreement and has angrily denounced the diplomatic outreach to Tehran.

President Barack Obama personally authorized the talks as part of his effort — promised in his first inaugural address — to reach out to a country the State Department designates as the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism.

The talks were held in the Middle Eastern nation of Oman and elsewhere with only a tight circle of people in the know, the AP learned. Since March, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Jake Sullivan, Vice President Joe Biden’s top foreign policy adviser, have met at least five times with Iranian officials.

The last four clandestine meetings, held since Iran’s reform-minded President Hassan Rouhani was inaugurated in August, produced much of the agreement later formally hammered out in negotiations in Geneva among the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and Iran, said three senior administration officials. All spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss by name the highly sensitive diplomatic effort.

The AP was tipped to the first US-Iranian meeting in March shortly after it occurred, but the White House and State Department disputed elements of the account and the AP could not confirm the meeting. The AP learned of further indications of secret diplomacy in the fall and pressed the White House and other officials further. As the Geneva talks appeared to be reaching their conclusion, senior administration officials confirmed to the AP the details of the extensive outreach.

The Geneva deal provides Iran with about $7 billion in relief from international sanctions in exchange for Iranian curbs on uranium enrichment and other nuclear activity. All parties pledged to work toward a final accord next year that would remove remaining suspicions in the West that Tehran is trying to assemble an atomic weapons arsenal.

Iran insists its nuclear interest is only in peaceful energy production and medical research.

The diplomatic gamble with Iran, if the interim agreement holds up and leads to a final pact preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, could avert years of threats of US or Israeli military intervention. It could also prove a turning point in decades of hostility between Washington and Tehran — and become a crowning foreign policy achievement of Obama’s presidency.

But if the deal collapses, or if Iran covertly races ahead with development of a nuclear weapon, Obama will face the consequences of failure, both at home and abroad. His gamble opens him to criticism that he has left Israel vulnerable to a country bent on its destruction and that he has made a deal with a state sponsor of terrorism.

The US and Iran cut off diplomatic ties in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution and the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held hostage for more than a year. But Obama has expressed a willingness since becoming president to meet with the Iranians without conditions.

At the president’s direction, the United States began a tentative outreach shortly after his inauguration in January 2009. Obama and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, exchanged letters, but the engagement yielded no results.

That outreach was hampered by Iran’s hardline former president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, whose re-election in a disputed vote in June of that year led to a violent crackdown on opposition protesters. The next month, relations seemed at another low when Iran detained three American hikers who had strayed across the Iranian border from Iraq.

Ironically, efforts to win the release of the hikers turned out to be instrumental in making the clandestine diplomacy possible.

Oman’s Sultan Qaboos was a key player, facilitating the eventual release of the hikers — the last two of whom returned to the United States in 2011 — and then offering himself as a mediator for a U.S.-Iran rapprochement. The secret informal discussions between mid-level officials in Washington and Tehran began.

Officials described those early contacts as exploratory discussions focused on the logistics of setting up higher-level talks. The discussions happened through numerous channels, officials said, including face-to-face talks at undisclosed locations. They included exchanges between then US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, now Obama’s national security adviser, and Iran’s envoy to the world body, the officials said. National Security Council aide Puneet Talwar was also involved, the officials said.

The talks took on added weight eight months ago, when Obama dispatched the deputy secretary of state Burns, the top aide Sullivan and five other officials to meet with their Iranian counterparts in the Omani capital of Muscat. Obama dispatched the group shortly after the six powers opened a new round of nuclear talks with Iran in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in late February.

At the time, those main nuclear negotiations were making little progress, and the Iranians had little interest in holding bilateral talks with the United States on the sidelines of the meeting out of fear that the discussions would become public, the US officials said.

So, with the assistance of Sultan Qaboos, officials in both countries began quietly making plans to meet in Oman. Burns, Sullivan and a small team of U.S. technical experts arrived on a military plane in mid-March for the meeting with the Iranians.

The senior administration officials who spoke to the AP would not say who Burns and Sullivan met with but characterized the Iranian attendees as career diplomats, national security aides and experts on the nuclear issue who were likely to remain key players even after the country’s elections this summer.

The goal on the American side, the US officials said, was simply at that point to see if the US and Iran could successfully arrange bilateral talks — a low bar that underscored the sour state of relations between the two nations.

Beyond nuclear issues, the officials said the US team at the March Oman meeting also raised concerns about Iranian involvement in Syria, Tehran’s threats to close the strategically important Strait of Hormuz and the status of Robert Levinson, a missing former FBI agent who the U.S. believes was abducted in Iran, as well as two other Americans detained in the country.

Hoping to keep the channel open, Secretary of State John Kerry then visited Oman in May on a trip ostensibly to push a military deal with the sultanate but secretly focused on maintaining that country’s key mediation role, particularly after the Iranian election scheduled for the next month, the officials said.

Rouhani’s election in June on a platform of easing sanctions crippling Iran’s economy and stated willingness to engage with the West gave a new spark to the US effort, the officials said.

Two secret meetings were organized immediately after Rouhani took office in August, with the specific goal of advancing the stalled nuclear talks with world powers. Another pair of meetings took place in October.

Burns and Sullivan led the US delegation at each of those sessions, and were joined at the final secret meeting by chief US nuclear negotiator Wendy Sherman.

The Iranian delegation was a mix of officials the Americans had met in March in Oman and others who were new to the talks, administration officials said. All of the Iranians were fluent English speakers.

US officials said the meetings happened in multiple locations, but would not confirm the exact spots, saying they did not want to jeopardize their ability to use the same locations in the future. But at least some of the talks are believed to have taken place in Oman.

The private meetings coincided with a public easing of US-Iranian discord. In early August, Obama sent Rouhani a letter congratulating him on his election. The Iranian leader’s response was viewed positively by the White House, which quickly laid the groundwork for the additional secret talks. The US officials said they were convinced that the outreach had the blessing of Ayatollah Khameni, but would not elaborate.

As negotiators continued to talk behind the scenes, public speculation swirled over a possible meeting between Obama and Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which both attended in September in New York. Burns and Sullivan sought to arrange face-to-face talks, but the meeting never happened largely due to Iranian concerns, the officials said. Two days later, though, Obama and Rouhani spoke by phone — the first direct contact between a U.S. and Iranian leader in more than 30 years.

It was only after that Obama-Rouhani phone call that the US began informing allies of the secret talks with Iran, the US officials said.

Obama handled the most sensitive conversation himself, briefing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Sept. 30 meeting at the White House. He informed Netanyahu only about the two summer meetings, not the March talks, in keeping with the White House’s promise only to tell allies about any discussions with Iran that were substantive.

The US officials would not describe Netanyahu’s reaction. But the next day, he delivered his General Assembly speech, blasting Rouhani as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and warning the US against mistaking a change in Iran’s tone with an actual change in nuclear ambitions. The Israeli leader has subsequently denounced the potential nuclear agreement as the “deal of the century” for Iran.

After telling Netanyahu about the secret talks, the United States then briefed the other members of the six-nation negotiating team, the U.S. officials said.

The last secret gatherings between the US and Iran took place shortly after the General Assembly, according to the officials.

There, the deal finally reached by the parties on Sunday began to take its final shape.

At this month’s larger formal nuclear negotiations between world powers and Iran in Geneva, Burns and Sullivan showed up as well, but the State Department went to great lengths to conceal their involvement, leaving their names off of the official delegation list.

They were housed at a different hotel than the rest of the team, used back entrances to come and go from meeting venues and were whisked into negotiating sessions from service elevators or unused corridors only after photographers left.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Trumpeting deal, Iranians say agreement stymies ‘Zionist plot’ | The Times of Israel.

Ultimately, Iran’s foreign minister says, accord will remove all sanctions and allow Iran to pursue nuclear power free of international pressure

By Gavriel Fiske November 24, 2013, 9:31 am

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks to the media at the International Conference Centre of Geneva, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, in Geneva, Switzerland. (photo credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster, Pool)

Iranian officials hailed a nuclear agreement signed with six world powers early Sunday, calling it a large success for the regime in Tehran and confirmation of the country’s right to enrich uranium.

The agreement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, represented “a big success for Iran” and an indication that “all plots hatched by the Zionist regime to stop the nuclear agreement have failed,” according to a report from state-sponsored Islamic Republic News Agency.

Zarif acknowledged on Sunday that the deal was “only a first step,” according to a Reuters report. “We need to start moving in the direction of restoring confidence, a direction in which we have managed to move against in the past,” he said.

The agreement signed Sunday morning in Geneva after several months of intense talks, including some in secret, amounts to a six-month partial freeze in Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for limited relief on the Western sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.

However, Iran has “no trust” in the Obama administration, and the deal is an opportunity for American to “renew the confidence of the Iranian nation,” Zarif told Iranian state news agency Press TV. Iran will, as part of the deal, cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency in order to “minimize the worry,” he added.

Despite signing the deal, a disagreement formed between the US and Iran over whether it included Western recognition of Iran’s right to enrich uranium, as Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi told the Tehran Times Sunday.

In a briefing with press shortly after the deal was announced, a senior US administration official emphasized that the US does not – and will not – recognize any Iranian right to enrich uranium.

In Geneva on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed at a press conference that the deal recognized Iran’s right to civilian nuclear power.

A reported copy of the interim agreement, posted online by Iran’s Fars News, included recognition of the right to enrichment in a bullet list of goals for a final deal.

Araqchi, who served as lead Iranian negotiator in the talks, had emphasized earlier that Iran would not accept an agreement that did not recognize the right of the Islamic Republic to continue to enrichment uranium.

Speaking to Press TV, Zarif said the nuclear crisis is now “abating,” and, as part of the deal, no new sanctions will be imposed on Iran during the six-month interim period before final negotiations.

“In the final step, the (uranium) enrichment process will be accepted and at the same time all the sanctions will be lifted,” he said, according to a New York Times translation. Tehran seeks to have a nuclear program that will be “free of international pressure,” he added.

In Tehran, people were optimistic over the deal, Al Jazeera reported.

“They are waking up to the news in a much more positive mood than at any other time during any of these talks,” the news channel’s correspondent in Tehran said.

Israeli officials have heavily criticized the agreement, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman telling Israel Radio that it was the greatest achievement for Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Israel denounces Iranian nuclear deal, says it will review options | JPost | Israel News.

11/24/2013 08:13

Bennett: “Israel does not see itself as bound by this bad, this very bad agreement that has been signed.”

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government denounced world powers’ nuclear agreement with Iran on Sunday as a “bad deal” to which Israel would not be bound.

Yet Israeli officials stopped short of threatening unilateral military action that could further isolate the Jewish state and imperil its bedrock alliance with Washington, saying more time was needed to assess the agreement.

“This is a bad deal. It grants Iran exactly what it wanted – both a significant easing in sanctions and preservation of the most significant parts of its nuclear program,” an official in Netanyahu’s office said.

Aimed at ending a dangerous standoff, the agreement between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia was nailed down after more than four days of negotiations in the Swiss city of Geneva.

A senior US official said the agreement halted progress on Iran’s nuclear program, including construction of the Arak research reactor, which is of special concern for the West as it can yield potential bomb material.

It would neutralize Iran’s stockpile of uranium refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, which is a close step away from the level needed for weapons, and calls for intrusive UN nuclear inspections, the official said.

The Islamic republic – which denies its nuclear program has hostile designs – has also committed to stop uranium enrichment above a fissile purity of 5 percent, a US fact sheet said.

But that still appeared to fall far short of Netanyahu’s demand for a total rollback of the Iranian nuclear program.

“You stand and shout out until you’re blue in the face, and you try to understand why they’re not listening. The world wanted an agreement,” Finance Minister Yair Lapid, a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Israel’s Army Radio.

“We also said that a diplomatic accord would be good. A diplomatic accord is certainly better than war, a diplomatic accord is better than a situation of permanent confrontation – just not this agreement.”

Lapid said that in the Israel had to pore over the deal: “For example, we still don’t understand exactly what stepping up the monitoring (on Iran’s facilities) means. This is a detailed matter. God really is in the small details.”

Economic Minister Naftali Bennett, another security cabinet member, told Army Radio in a separate interview: “Israel does not see itself as bound by this bad, this very bad agreement that has been signed.”

Neither minister would be drawn on how Israel might respond. Israel, which is widely assumed to have the Middle East’s sole atomic arsenal, sees a mortal menace in a nuclear-armed Iran and has at times threatened to launch a preemptive war against its arch-foe.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Geneva deal required the Netanyahu government to conduct a strategic review.

Asked on Israel Radio whether he felt cheated by the United States for its role in the deal, Lieberman said: “Heaven forbid.

Top Israeli officials lambaste ‘self-delusional’ Iran nuclear deal | The Times of Israel.

Foreign Minister Liberman says agreement will force Israel to make ‘different decisions’; Intel Minister Steinitz decries world celebrations, says Israel won’t take part; Prime Minister’s Office pans deal as giving Iran exactly what it wants

By AP and Times of Israel staff November 24, 2013, 7:54 am

From left, Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius greet each other and shake hands at the United Nations Palais, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Iran nuclear talks. (photo credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster, Pool)

Two top ministers harshly criticized the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers early Sunday, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman saying the agreement had shifted the status quo in the Middle East.

“This brings us to a new reality in the whole Middle East, including the Saudis. This isn’t just our worry” he told Israel Radio. “We’ve found ourselves in a completely new situation.”

When asked if this would lead to an Israeli military strike on Iran, Liberman said Israel “would need to make different decisions.”

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear program, said there is no reason for the world to be celebrating. He said the deal, reached in Geneva early Sunday, is based on “Iranian deception and self-delusion.”

“Just like the failed deal with North Korea, the current deal can actually bring Iran closer to the bomb,” Steinitz said. “Israel cannot take part in the international celebrations based on Iranian deception and self-delusion.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to discuss the matter with his Cabinet later Sunday. He is also expected to speak by phone with US President Barack Obama, Reuters reported.

An unnamed source in the Prime Minister’s Office called the agreement a “bad deal that gives Iran exactly what it wants,” according to Israel Radio.

The deal, announced early Sunday morning, limits continued Iranian enrichment of uranium to 5 percent in exchange for eased sanctions.

Diplomats refused to spell out details of the talks, but a senior Obama administration official said that the West had not conceded an Iranian right to produce nuclear fuel through uranium enrichment, a key sticking point in previous negotiations.

Iranian Foreign Minister said the deal did recognize Iran’s right to enrich, an assessment Liberman agreed with.

The White House official said the deal included an agreement that Iran would halt progress on its nuclear program, including a plutonium reactor at the Arak facility. The deal also calls on Iran to neutralize its 20-percent-enriched uranium stockpiles. Tehran has also agreed to intrusive inspections under the terms of the deal.

However, Liberman slammed the deal as not going far enough, since it does not dismantle the nuclear facilities.

“They have enough uranium to make a few bombs already,” he said.

Israel believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.

In recent weeks, Israel had warned the emerging deal would give Iran too much relief from economic sanctions without halting Iran’s march toward a nuclear bomb.

Geneva talks yield nuclear deal with Iran – Israel News, Ynetnews.

After months of anticipation, rounds of talks, Iran, world powers reach deal. According to details, Iran will continue low-level enrichment but would neutralize stockpiles. Netanyahu dubs deal ‘bad’ while Obama claims will block Iran from proliferating

Ynet

Iran and six world powers reached a breakthrough deal on Sunday to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

Aimed at ending a dangerous standoff, the agreement between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia was nailed down after more than four days of negotiations in the Swiss city of Geneva, much to the disappointment of Israeli officials.

The accord was designed as a package of confidence-building steps to ease decades of tensions and confrontation and banish the specter of a Middle East war over Tehran’s nuclear aspirations.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has been coordinating talks with Iran on behalf of the major powers, said it created time and space for talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive solution to the dispute.

“This is only a first step,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a news conference.

“We need to start moving in the direction of restoring confidence, a direction in which we have managed to move against in the past,” he said, adding Tehran would expand cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, to address what he called some concerns.

Speaking later Sunday morning in Iran’s Press TV, Zarif further claimed that the powers recognized Iran’s nuclear program and in a final “step” all sanctions on the Islamic republic would be lifted.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government denounced the deal Sunday as a “bad deal” that Israel did not regard itself as bound by. “This is a bad deal,” an official in Netanyahu’s office said.

“Israel does not see itself as bound by this bad, this very bad agreement that has been signed,” Economic Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of Netanyahu’s security Cabinet, told Israel’s Army Radio.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said the deal was an important first step towards a comprehensive solution to Iran’s nuclear program and its provisions were key to preventing Iran from proliferating. “Simply put, they cut off Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb,” Obama told reporters.

A senior US official said the agreement halted progress on Iran’s nuclear program, including construction of the Arak research reactor, which is of special concern for the West as it can yield potential bomb material.

It would neutralize Iran’s stockpile of uranium refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, which is a close step away from the level needed for weapons, and calls for intrusive U.N. nuclear inspections, the official said.

Iran has also committed to stop uranium enrichment above a fissile purity of 5%, a US fact sheet said. Refined uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants – Iran’s stated goal – but also provide the fissile core of an atomic bomb if refined much further.

The deal has no recognition of an Iranian right to enrich uranium and sanctions would still be enforced, the US official added.

Iran will get access to $4.2 billion in foreign exchange as part of the accord, and is also expected to receive limited sanctions relief on gold, petrochemicals and autos, a Western diplomat said.

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear program, says there is no reason for the world to be celebrating. He says the deal, reached in Geneva early Sunday, is based on “Iranian deception and self-delusion.”

It was the first Israeli reaction to the deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to discuss the matter with his Cabinet later Sunday as well as hold a phone conversation with US President Obama.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a Twitter message that it was an “important and encouraging” first-stage agreement with Iran, whose nuclear program “won’t move forward for 6 months and parts rolled back.”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the deal only confirmed Iran’s right to civil nuclear power.

“After years of blockages, the agreement in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program is an important step to preserving security and peace,” Fabius said in a statement.

New horizons

US Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers of the five other world powers joined the negotiations with Iran early on Saturday as the two sides appeared to be edging closer to a long-sought preliminary agreement.

Diplomacy was stepped up after the landslide election of Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate, as Iranian president in June, replacing bellicose nationalist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On a Twitter account widely recognized as representing Rohani, a message said after the agreement was announced, “Iranian people’s vote for moderation & constructive engagement + tireless efforts by negotiating teams are to open new horizons.”

The OPEC producer rejects suspicions it is trying covertly to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons, saying it is stockpiling nuclear material for future atomic power plants.

The Yeshiva World Transcript of President Obama’s Iran Speech « » Frum Jewish News.

Today, the United States – together with our close allies and partners – took an important first step toward a comprehensive solution that addresses our concerns with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program.

Since I took office, I have made clear my determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.  As I have said many times, my strong preference is to resolve this issue peacefully, and we have extended the hand of diplomacy. Yet for many years, Iran has been unwilling to meet its obligations to the international community.  So my Administration worked with Congress, the U.N. Security Council and countries around the world to impose unprecedented sanctions on the Iranian government.

These sanctions have had a substantial impact on the Iranian economy, and with the election of a new Iranian President earlier this year, an opening for diplomacy emerged.  I spoke personally with President Rouhani of Iran earlier this fall.  Secretary Kerry has met multiple times with Iran’s Foreign Minister.  And we have pursued intensive diplomacy – bilaterally with the Iranians, and together with our P5+1 partners: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China, as well as the European Union.

Today, that diplomacy opened up a new path toward a world that is more secure – a future in which we can verify that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, and that it cannot build a nuclear weapon.

While today’s announcement is just a first step, it achieves a great deal. For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back.  Iran has committed to halting certain levels of enrichment, and neutralizing part of its stockpile. Iran cannot use its next-generation centrifuges—which are used for enriching uranium. Iran cannot install or start up new centrifuges, and its production of centrifuges will be limited.  Iran will halt work at its plutonium reactor.  And new inspections will provide extensive access to Iran’s nuclear facilities, and allow the international community to verify whether Iran is keeping its commitments.

These are substantial limitations which will help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Simply put, they cut off Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb.  Meanwhile, this first step will create time and space over the next six months for more negotiations to fully address our comprehensive concerns about the Iranian program. And because of this agreement, Iran cannot use negotiations as cover to advance its program.

On our side, the United States and our friends and allies have agreed to provide Iran modest relief, while continuing to apply our toughest sanctions.  We will refrain from imposing new sanctions, and we will allow the Iranian government access to a portion of the revenue that they have been denied through sanctions.  But the broader architecture of sanctions will remain in place and we will continue to enforce them vigorously.  And if Iran does not fully meet its commitments during this six month phase, we will turn off the relief, and ratchet up the pressure.

Over the next six months, we will work to negotiate a comprehensive solution. We approach these negotiations with a basic understanding: Iran, like any nation, should be able to access peaceful nuclear energy.  But because of its record of violating its obligations, Iran must accept strict limitations on its nuclear program that make it impossible to develop a nuclear weapon.

In these negotiations, nothing will be agreed to until everything is agreed to. The burden is on Iran to prove to the world that its nuclear program will be for exclusively peaceful purposes. If Iran seizes this opportunity, the Iranian people will benefit from rejoining the international community, and we can begin to chip away at the mistrust between our two nations. This would provide Iran with a dignified path to forge a new beginning with the wider world based on mutual respect. But if Iran refuses, it will face growing pressure and isolation.

Over the last few years, Congress has been a key partner in imposing sanctions on the Iranian government, and that bipartisan effort made possible the progress that was achieved today.  Going forward, we will continue to work closely with Congress.  However, now is not the time to move forward on new sanctions – doing so would derail this promising first step, alienate us from our allies, and risk unraveling the coalition that enabled our sanctions to be enforced in the first place.

That international unity is on display today.  The world is united in support of our determination to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.  Iran must know that security and prosperity will never come through the pursuit of nuclear weapons – it must be reached through fully verifiable agreements that make Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons impossible.

As we go forward, the resolve of the United States will remain firm, as will our commitment to our friends and allies – particularly Israel and our Gulf partners, who have good reason to be skeptical about Iran’s intentions.

Ultimately, only diplomacy can bring about a durable solution to the challenge posed by Iran’s nuclear program.  As President and Commander in Chief, I will do what is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, I have a profound responsibility to try to resolve our differences peacefully, rather than rush towards conflict. Today, we have a real opportunity to achieve a comprehensive, peaceful settlement, and I believe we must test it.

The first step that we have taken today marks the most significant and tangible progress that we have made with Iran since I took office. Now, we must use the months ahead to pursue a lasting and comprehensive settlement that would resolve an issue that has threatened our security – and the security of our allies – for decades.  It won’t be easy.  Huge challenges remain ahead.  But through strong and principled diplomacy, the United States of America will do our part on behalf of a world of greater peace, security, and cooperation among nations.