WarSclerotic

Kerry warns of third intifada, Israel’s isolation, if peace talks break down | JPost | Israel News.

US Secretary of State John Kerry painted a very bleak picture of what would be the result of a break-down in the current Israeli-Palestinian talks, warning on Thursday of a third intifada and international isolation of Israel

Kerry’s warnings came in an unusual joint interview with Channel 2’s Udi Segal and Maher Shalabi of Palestine TV.

“The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos,” Kerry said. “Does Israel want a third intifada?”

The Secretary of State’s warnings of a third intifada came two days after a poll conducted by the Arab World For Research & Development showed that only 29% of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians said they would support a third intifada, though 60% believe one is possible.

Kerry’s dire warnings echoed comments he made in Jordan after meeting King Abdullah II, and before a second meeting in two days with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In a signal that the three-month old talks were indeed in a troubled spot, Kerry extended his visit another day and is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday morning, for the third time since Wednesday. A meeting the two held Wednesday evening, following Kerry’s first meeting with Abbas, went on past midnight, Israeli officials said.

“I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis, if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel, three will be an increasing campaign of the de-legitimization of Israel that has been taking place on an international basis,” he said in the interview..

“If we do not resolve the question of settlements, and who lives where and what rights they have; if we don’t end the presence of Israeli soldiers perpetually in the West Bank, then there will be an increasing feeling that if you cannot get peace with a leadership that is committed to non-violence, we may wind up with a leadership that is committed to violence,” he added.

In a press conference alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Amman on Thursday, Kerry reiterated this theme. “What is the alternative to peace?” he asked. ” Prolonged continued conflict. The absence of peace really means you have a sort of low-grade conflict, war.”

He said that “as long as the aspirations of people are held down one way or another” and as long as the conflict continued without a solution, the “possibilities of violence” increase.

He did say, however, that both Netanyahu and Abbas “reaffirmed their commitment to these negotiations despite the fact that at moments there are obviously tensions.”

Following his scheduled meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday, Kerry is to continue his regional visit with trips to the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Morocco. He has already visited this week – in addition to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan – Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Ya’alon rails against Iran-Palestinian linkage, dismisses forecasts of violence | The Times of Israel.

Without mentioning Kerry by name, defense minister bemoans US stance on Iran and rejects notion that conflict with Palestinians could soon be solved

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on a recent tour of the Gaza border (Photo credit: Alon Basson/ Ministry of Defense/ Flash 90)

In a combative speech issued as world powers surge toward a preliminary deal with Iran and peace talks with the Palestinians flounder, Israel’s defense minister brushed aside all talk of a third Palestinian uprising and warned against the dangers of concessionary diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program.

“We’ve reached a stage where Iran is crawling on all fours toward the West and asking: remove the sanctions or we’ll collapse,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Thursday at an annual meeting of Israel’s CPA institute. If those sanctions are lifted before the program has been decisively dismantled, he added, “the Iranians will laugh all the way to the bomb.”

Ya’alon was equally blunt about the prospect of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within US Secretary of State John Kerry’s allotted nine-month time frame. “We are handling an open-ended and ongoing conflict, which from the Palestinian perspective does not end with the 1967 borders,” he said.

Depicting Palestinian society as unwaveringly attached to Sheikh Munis and Majdal – the Arab names for the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon – and Palestinian youth as educated to believe that Akko and Haifa are Palestinian ports, he said, “There’s an incident here that does not have a solution now, but in the long term. We’ll handle it wisely and there’s no need to worry about threats of yes a third Intifada or not a third Intifada.”

Ya’alon spoke hours after a seemingly fatigued, frustrated and petulant Kerry, visiting Israel and the West Bank to push the two sides closer together, sat for an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 News. Speaking with correspondent Udi Segal, he called settlements “illegitimate” rather than the more commonly used “unhelpful,” lashed out at Israel for its entrenched — but possibly well earned — pessimism, and issued forecasts of widespread violence in return for a lack of progress on the peace track.

“The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos,” Kerry said. “I mean does Israel want a third Intifada?” he asked. “Israel says, ‘Oh we feel safe today, we have the wall. We’re not in a day to day conflict’,” said Kerry. “I’ve got news for you. Today’s status quo will not be tomorrow’s…”

Ya’alon, however, speaking as the nuclear talks in Geneva moved close to an possible agreement that would provide sanctions relief in exchange for a freeze in the nuclear program — terms that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “grievous historic error” — depicted the Middle East as a region governed not by good will and optimism undaunted, but rather by interests and large sticks.

“We judge every sector based not on wishful thinking but on interests. And in the Middle East interests are a thick club and carrots.”

This stance, in a Middle East that Ya’alon described as neither black nor white, pessimistic nor optimistic, but rather “far more colorful,” explained why Hezbollah was deterred from striking Israel despite the 70,000 rockets at its disposal, he said.

Characterizing the Iranian regime as possessing sincere goals of global hegemony, he said that the regime had to be pushed further to the brink, to the choice between the bomb and survival, and that such a position could be held through “tough, non-conciliatory diplomacy.”

Finally, in a direct jab at President Barak Obama’s new streamlined Middle East policy objectives, and a long held belief among many in the Pentagon, he ridiculed the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was related to any of the other regional conflicts.

“Unfortunately, [some] tie the Iranian issue to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said. “They tie anything to this conflict. We say, ‘enough, this region is unstable not on account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.’”

And though he said it was in Israel’s interest to maintain a peace process, “there are those who know and explain to us what the solution is, and they know how to reach it in a short period of time. There are some who say this conflict is only territorial, that it began in ’67 and will end along the ’67 lines, but I haven’t heard any Palestinian leadership, including [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s], say that it is willing to consider any territorial concession as an end to the conflict and a culmination of claims, and to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.”

Israel in danger of being ‘party pooper’ as Iran, West eye preliminary accord – Middle East Israel News | Haaretz.

( I’ll take being a living “party pooper”  rather than a dead “Ooops! Sorry…” – JW )

Positive noises from Iranian representatives at two-day talks in Geneva contrast with Israel’s perceived negative approach.

Mohammad Javad Zarif at the talks with the P5+1 powers in Geneva on November 7. Photo by AP

It’s enough to glance at Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s Facebook page to grasp the joy, almost gaiety, that overtook him on the eve of the nuclear negotiations that began Thursday in Geneva. In almost emotional detail, he described his meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who noted that for a French and Iranian foreign minister to be meeting in such a positive atmosphere was itself a novelty. “We both expressed hope that the talks would succeed,” Zarif wrote.

Soon afterward, he declared that “if the parties make the necessary effort,” an initial agreement could be reached that very day. Not for the first time, it seems the Iranians are actively pushing for a quick agreement, seeking an initial achievement that would block the internal opposition to Iran’s new president, Hassan Rohani, and lengthen the rope the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has given him.

What would constitute an achievement at the two-day talks, concluding Friday? An Iranian website, citing “informed sources,” said Tehran sought to remove the sanctions on its central bank and restrictions on its oil ministry. This report claimed that an agreement on lifting those sanctions for six months had already been reached in preparatory talks over the last three weeks, and this could explain Zarif’s optimistic messages. Sanctions on Iran’s central bank are relatively easy to remove, since the law allows U.S. President Barack Obama to waive them without needing to seek approval from Congress.

But the report didn’t mention what price Iran would have to pay for this achievement.

For the West, the key is apparently a freeze on uranium enrichment – not a complete end to enrichment, but a six-month hiatus – as one of the confidence-building measures on which the negotiations will be based. However, it’s still unclear whether this freeze would apply to all enrichment, including to a level of 3.5 to 5 percent, or only to 20 percent enrichment. Iran has already hinted that it would be willing to freeze the latter, but has not so far indicated any willingness to freeze low-level enrichment.

For Iran, such a deal would grant it access to about $50 billion in overseas bank deposits, money received in payment for oil or other exports. An end to central bank sanctions would also allow it to provide merchants with bank guarantees for overseas deals, thereby reducing their dependence on cash transactions.

This sum wouldn’t significantly change Iran’s economic situation, but it could serve as proof that Rohani’s conciliatory policies are bearing fruit and thus persuade Khamenei to give him more time to pursue these policies. This matters because, in addition to satisfying the West, Rohani must also allay the fears of his country’s conservatives, who are currently remaining silent mainly because he has Khamenei’s backing.

Both the lifting of sanctions on the central bank and a freeze on enrichment are easily reversible; either side could do so at any moment. In contrast, any easing of the more significant sanctions, some of which were imposed by the UN Security Council, will come only in the final stages of the negotiations, since this would effectively be irreversible. Adopting these sanctions required an enormous international effort and, if they are lifted, it’s doubtful that enough international support could ever be mobilized to reinstate them.

Iran’s goal is to remove all the sanctions within six months to a year. The question is whether the parties will wait until the end of the six-month trial period to decide on the next steps, or whether they will be able to conclude the principles of a final deal during this trial period, thereby shortening the time until they are able to announce an “end of the conflict” between Iran and the West.

If an agreement is reached Friday on Iran’s offer and the West’s quid pro quo, Iran will also be free of the threat of a military attack – not only from the United States, but also from Israel. According to diplomatic sources, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that Israel won’t attack Iran during the negotiations, as long as Iran isn’t progressing toward the development of nuclear weapons.

“The criticism of Iran, and of the negotiations with it, that is being heard from Israel is understandable,” a European diplomat told Haaretz. “But [Israel] must take care not to overdo it, because it is liable to be pushed into a corner in which it will no longer be relevant, even if it is right. The atmosphere in both Europe and the United States is that we’re on the brink of a new era with Iran. And in such a situation, people don’t like party poopers.”

John Kerry To Join Iran Nuclear Talks In Geneva After Mideast Trip, Officials Say.

AP/The Huffington Post  |  Posted: 11/07/2013 6:35 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/07/2013 10:07 pm EST

GENEVA — GENEVA (AP) — Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator signaled progress at talks with six world powers Thursday on a deal to cap some of his country’s atomic programs in exchange for limited relief from sanctions stifling Iran’s economy, saying the six had accepted Tehran’s proposals on how to proceed.

U.S. officials said Secretary of State John Kerry will fly to Geneva on Friday to participate in the negotiations — a last-minute decision that suggests a deal could be imminent.

A senior State Department official traveling with Kerry in Amman, Jordan, said the secretary would come to Geneva “to help narrow differences in negotiations.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information about the Geneva visit.

Even if an agreement is reached, it would only be the start of a long process to reduce Iran’s potential nuclear threat, with no guarantee of ultimate success.

Still, a limited accord would mark a breakthrough after nearly a decade of mostly inconclusive talks focused on limiting, if not eliminating, Iranian atomic programs that could be turned from producing energy into making weapons.

Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, told Iranian state TV that the six — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — “clearly said that they accept the proposed framework by Iran.” He later told CNN that he thinks negotiators at the table are now “ready to start drafting” an accord that outlines specific steps to be taken.

Though Araghchi described the negotiations as “very difficult,” he told Iranian state TV that he expected agreement on details by Friday, the last scheduled round of the current talks.

The upbeat comments suggested that negotiators in Geneva were moving from broad discussions over a nuclear deal to details meant to limit Tehran’s ability to make atomic weapons. In return, Iran would start getting relief from sanctions that have hit its economy hard.

U.S. officials said Kerry will travel to the Geneva talks after a brief stop in Israel, where he will hold a third meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has spoken out against any limited deal that would allow the Iranians sanctions relief.

In Geneva, Kerry is expected to meet Friday with the European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the schedule.

The talks are primarily focused on the size and output of Iran’s enrichment program, which can create both reactor fuel and weapons-grade material suitable for a nuclear bomb. Iran insists it is pursuing only nuclear energy, medical treatments and research, but the United States and its allies fear that Iran could turn this material into the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

President Barack Obama, in an interview with NBC on Thursday, described any sanctions relief as “modest” but said core sanctions against Iran would remain in place.

“Our job is not to trust the Iranians,” Obama said. “Our job is to put in place mechanisms where we can verify what they’re doing and not doing when it comes to their nuclear program.”

International negotiators representing the six powers declined to comment on Araghchi’s statement. Bur White House spokesman Jay Carney elaborated on what the U.S. calls a “first step” of a strategy meant to ultimately contain Iran’s ability to use its nuclear program to make weapons.

An initial agreement would “address Iran’s most advanced nuclear activities; increase transparency so Iran will not be able to use the cover of talks to advance its program; and create time and space as we negotiate a comprehensive agreement,” Carney told reporters in Washington.

The six would consider “limited, targeted and reversible relief that does not affect our core sanctions,” he said, alluding to penalties crippling Tehran’s oil exports. If Iran reneges, said Carney, “the temporary, modest relief would be terminated, and we would be in a position to ratchet up the pressure even further by adding new sanctions.”

He described any temporary, initial relief of sanctions as likely “more financial rather than technical.” Diplomats have previously said initial sanction rollbacks could free Iranian funds in overseas accounts and allow trade in gold and petrochemicals.

Warily watching from the sidelines, Israel warned against a partial agreement that foresees lifting sanctions now instead of waiting for a rigorous final accord that eliminates any possibility of Iran making nuclear weapons.

At a meeting with U.S. legislators in Jerusalem, Netanyahu spoke of “the deal of the century for Iran.” While divulging no details, he said the proposed first step at Geneva “will relieve all the (sanctions) pressure inside Iran.”

The last round of talks three weeks ago reached agreement on a framework of possible discussion points, and the two sides kicked off Thursday’s round focused on getting to that first step.

Thursday’s meeting ended about an hour after it began, followed by bilateral meetings, including one between the U.S and Iranian delegations. EU spokesman Michael Mann said the talks were “making progress.”

Before the morning round, Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, met with the EU’s Ashton, who is convening the meeting. Asked afterward about the chances of agreement on initial steps this week, Zarif told reporters: “If everyone tries their best, we may have one.”

After nearly a decade of deadlock, Iran seems more amenable to making concessions to the six countries. Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, has indicated he could cut back on the nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

Despite the seemingly calmer political backdrop, issues remain.

Iranian hardliners want a meaningful — and quick — reduction of the sanctions in exchange for any concessions, while some U.S. lawmakers want significant rollbacks in Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for any loosening of actions.

UPDATE 6:35 p.m. ET:

According to a Wall Street Journal report, a deal could come as early as Friday.

Kerry’s trip is expected to be met by an initial agreement to reel in Iran’s nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions. The Wall Street Journal notes that it would be the “first breakthrough in a decade” to ease ongoing tensions over Iran’s potential of developing nuclear weapons.

The deal would halt Iran’s most advanced nuclear programs, including development of fuel that could propel weapons. In doing so, sanctions that have long hindered Iran will be eased by the U.S. and Europe, diplomats told the Wall Street Journal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been outspoken on his lack of confidence in the attempts for an accord, saying “Israel totally opposes these proposals” in a speech. He tweeted Thursday:

BBC News – John Kerry changes plans to join Iran nuclear talks.

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Zarif said the sides could sit down by Friday morning to prepare “some sort of a joint statement”

US Secretary of State John Kerry is to fly to join negotiations in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear programme, amid rising expectation of a breakthrough.

Mr Kerry had been on a tour of the Middle East, but changed his plans at the invitation of the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Iran’s foreign minister said a deal could be reached on Friday.

The talks bring together world powers – the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1) – and Iran.

The BBC’s Kim Ghattas, who is travelling with Mr Kerry, says his dramatic decision to change his travel plans and go to Geneva is a clear sign that a deal with Iran may be within reach.

A senior state department official told the BBC that he was going “to help narrow differences in negotiations” between Iran and the 5P+1.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told CNN on Thursday that Iran would not suspend uranium enrichment completely but could “deal with the various issues on the table”.

The West suspects Iran’s uranium enrichment programme is a step towards building nuclear weapons.

On Thursday, the US confirmed some sanctions relief was being offered in return for “concrete, verifiable measures”.

But Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said a nuclear deal would be a “historic” mistake, accusing Iran of only offering fake concessions.

Mr Kerry is due to meet Mr Netanyahu early on Friday before flying to Geneva.

‘End game’

Mr Zarif said the sides could sit down by Friday morning to prepare “some sort of a joint statement” that would address three elements – a common objective, an “end game… in less than a year” and mutual confidence-building measures.

Iran’s lead negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, said the world powers had “clearly” accepted his country’s proposed framework and were now discussing details.

However, there was no official confirmation from the P5+1 – the US, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday that the six powers “would consider limited, targeted, and reversible relief that does not affect our core sanctions architecture”.

The broader sanctions regime would be maintained until there was a “final, comprehensive, verifiable” agreement that resolved international concerns, he said.

If Iran failed to show progress on its nuclear programme, the “moderate” sanctions relief could be reversed, and stiffer sanctions could be imposed, he added.

Hopes of a long-awaited deal on curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions were given fresh momentum this year by the election of President Hassan Rouhani, seen as a relative moderate.

Since 2006 the UN Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions – including asset freezes and travel bans – on entities and people involved in Iran’s nuclear programme.

Separate US and EU sanctions have targeted Iran’s energy and banking sectors, crippling its oil-based economy. Iran wants the sanctions lifted.

Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem before the talks began, Mr Netanyahu said the proposals would allow Iran to retain the capabilities to make nuclear weapons.

“Israel understands that there are proposals on the table in Geneva today that would ease the pressure on Iran for concessions that are not concessions at all,” he said.

Mr Netanyahu said economic sanctions had brought the Iranian economy to the “edge of the abyss” and the P5+1 could “compel Iran to fully dismantle its nuclear weapons programme”.

“Anything else will make a peaceful solution less likely. Israel always reserves the right to defend itself, by itself, against any threat,” Israel’s prime minister said.

PM: ‘Grievous Historic Error’ being Made at Geneva – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

( Watch and make up your own mind whether Netanyahu is bluffing or warning… – JW )

Iranian deputy foreign minister says the six powers have “accepted the framework of Iran’s proposal.” Netanyahu issues stern warning.

A senior Iranian official claimed Thursday that a breakthrough had been made at nuclear talks in Geneva, and that Tehran’s proposed plan for resolving the impasse over its atomic program has been accepted by the six world powers. At roughly the same time, Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, warned that signing an interim deal with Iran would be a mistake of “historic proportions,” but that appears to be precisely the deal being hammered out.

Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said the so-called P5+1 powers had “accepted the framework of Iran’s proposal.”

“The aim of both sides is to sign the agreement,” he told Iranian journalists after the first session of talks, adding that further progress was expected at a scheduled meeting on Thursday evening.

“We hope we can all reach an agreement on a single text and that an agreement would be signed between two sides. We are currently working on this issue but it is too early to say if we will have a written agreement or it will be deferred to the next meeting or the next ones,” Araqchi said. “It’s too early to say whether a written agreement could be made in the next 48 hours.”

The British Guardian called his account of progress at the talks “the most upbeat from a Iranian official in many years.” It is believed the Iranian framework involves signing an interim partial deal that would slow down or stop key elements of the progress of Iran’s nuclear activity in return for limited sanctions relief. That would “buy time” for a more comprehensive deal, to be negotiated over the course of a year, which would set long-term limits for the Iranian program.

In another sign of progress, the leader of the Iranian delegation, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, cancelled a trip to Rome so that he could take part in Thursday evening’s face-to-face meeting with the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who acts as the convenor for the six-nation negotiating group that includes the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China.

In addition, reorted the Guardian, the format of the talks in the afternoon were changed in an attempt to make possible more rapid progress. Araqchi said both sides agreed to hold four brief sessions in the afternoon instead of the usual long sessions. Iran will meet France, Britain and Germany in one session and Russia, China and the US in three separate afternoon sessions.

Netanyahu: historic mistake

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denounced on Thursday the proposals reportedly being made in Geneva regarding Iran’s nuclear program, saying adopting them would be “a mistake of historic proportions.”

Speaking at a conference on joint strategic dialogue between the government of Israel and the Jewish world, Netanyahu said the proposals being offered at the meeting would ease pressure on Iran for empty concessions that would “allow Iran to retain the capabilities to make nuclear weapons.”

He added that ongoing sanctions have seriously affected the Iranian economy, and the P5+1 can compel the nation to fully dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

Netanyahu called for “ending all enrichment, stopping all work on the heavy water plutonium reactor. Anything else will make a peaceful solution less likely.”

He reiterated that Israel “reserves the right to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.”

Netanyahu met Thursday evening with a visiting delegation of members of the US Congress and told them, “If the news that I am receiving of the impending proposal by the P5+1 is true, this is the deal of the century, for Iran. Because Iran is essentially giving nothing and it’s getting all the air taken out, the air begins to be taken out of the pressure cooker that it took years to build in the sanctions regime.

“What we’re having today is a situation that Iran is giving up, at best, a few days of enrichment time, but the whole international regime’s sanctions policy has the air taken out of it. That’s a big mistake, it will relieve all the pressure inside Iran, it is a historic mistake, a grievous historic error.”

Iranian state TV aired a documentary this week showing the country’s ability to fire missiles on Tel Aviv and Foreign Minister Zarif said Wednesday that the West should forget armed action, saying negotiations were the only option.

Analysis has shown that Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon would be a huge destabilizing factor in the Middle East, with some suggesting that Saudi Arabia’s oil fields would be a first target.

Netanyahu: Geneva offer to Iran is a ‘historic mistake’ | The Times of Israel.

As new P5+1 talks begin, PM slams offer of eased sanctions if Iran agrees to scale back nuclear program; Tehran’s FM says deal could be done this week

By Stuart Winer November 7, 2013, 6:02 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Jerusalem on November 07, 2013. Photo by FLASH90

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday described a reported Western offer to Iran — of “limited” sanctions relief in response to an Iranian agreement to start scaling back nuclear activities — as a “historic mistake.”

Addressing Israeli and Diaspora leaders in Jerusalem as a new round of talks on Iran’s rogue nuclear program got under way in Geneva, Netanyahu said, the proposals “on the table in Geneva” would “ease the pressure on Iran in return for ‘concessions’ that aren’t concessions at all.” He said Israel completely oppose these proposals, which would leave Iran with a capacity to build nuclear weapons.

“I believe that adopting [these proposals] would be a mistake of historic proportions. They must be rejected outright,” he added.

Sanctions had brought Iran to the brink of economic collapse, and the P5+1 countries have the opportunity to force Iran to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the prime minister said. “Anything less than that” would reduce the likelihood of a peaceful solution to the crisis, he said, and Israel would always reserve to protect itself against any threat.

As the talks kicked off, the Iranian foreign minister said a deal over his country’s rogue nuclear program could be reached by week’s end, if all parties strove to reach that goal.

“If everyone tries their best we may have one,” Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted by Reuters as saying. “We expect serious negotiations. It’s possible.”

Zarif made the comments to reporters after a preliminary breakfast meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

A senior US official, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said the six world powers of the P5+1 — the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany — were ready to offer “limited, targeted and reversible” sanctions relief in response to agreement by Iran to start scaling back activities that could be used to make weapons.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif at the United Nations, September 26,2013 (screen capture: Youtube/Youtube News)

Israeli Energy Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) said the offer was “unfathomable” and that it was a “grave mistake” to offer any easing of the sanctions pressure when the Iranians hadn’t done anything to dismantle their nuclear program. He said the nuclear program was seen by the regime in Tehran as its guarantee of survival, and that it was taking its cue from the summer’s Syrian chemical weapons crisis, when it saw that the West didn’t dare confront the relatively weak President Bashar Assad, even though he used chemical weapons against his own people 14 times.

Following Netanyahu’s cue, Israeli officials said they wouldn’t accept any compromise short of dismantling Iran’s nuclear research program.

“Israel… has learned that a proposal will be brought before the P5+1 in Geneva in which Iran will cease all enrichment at 20 percent and slow down work on the heavy water reactor in Arak, and will receive in return the easing of sanctions,” an Israeli official told AFP Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Israel thinks this is a bad deal and will oppose it strongly.”

But in a nod to skeptics in Congress, the official emphasized that any economic relief given Iran could be canceled, should Tehran renege on commitments it makes in Geneva. She added that the six powers were looking to test the durability of any initial nuclear limits Iran agreed to by waiting — possibly for as long as six months — after such an agreement before any sanctions relief kicked in.

Iran and the P5+1 were set to begin two days of negotiations on Thursday in the latest round of talks aimed at allaying Western fears that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons. The United States is leading Western powers in demanding that Iran not only halt its nuclear development but cut back on its capabilities and stockpiles of enriched uranium and plutonium.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

‘Nuclear Iran’s First Target: the Saudis’ – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

One Iranian EMP nuclear bomb can knock out the Saudi and American defenses in Saudi Arabia, said Langfan.

An EMP, or electro-magnetic pulse bomb, explodes at high altitude, knocking out the electric grid of a large area and rendering computers and other electronics useless.

Langfan predicted that the EMP nuke could put the Iran in control of the Shiite-majority areas of eastern Saudi Arabia where almost 100% of Saudi oil is located.

He also drove home the fact that most of the world’s oil reserves are located within the so-called “black gold triangle” which Iran can turn into a Shiite Caliphate.

On last week’s The Watchman, Langfan explained that a Palestinian Authority state would render Israel defenseless.

Mark Langfan’s articles on the subject of Iran’s EMP potential in Arutz Sheva:

The 100% Fatwa-Compliant Iranian EMP Nuclear Weapon

Saudi Arabia First on the Iranian Nuke Hit List

US senator pushes to block Iran sanctions waivers | The Times of Israel.

An interim agreement that does not freeze enrichment and work on Arak plant might be a hard sell for the administration

By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil November 7, 2013, 3:24 pm

Iran’s heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak, 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Tehran (photo credit: AP/ISNA/Hamid Foroutan/File)

WASHINGTON — A powerful Republican senator is considering legislation that would block the Obama administration from being able to lift any sanctions against Iran without major concessions by Tehran toward stopping its nuclear program. While his key Democratic counterparts in the Senate remain silent on pending sanctions legislation, Sen. Robert Corker, a Republican of Tennessee, said Wednesday that he is considering an amendment that would require Iran to cease enrichment altogether and suspend all work on the Arak heavy water plant before any sanctions are lifted.

Corker told the The Daily Beast that he had “crafted an amendment to freeze the administration in and make it so they are unable to reduce the sanctions unless certain things occur.”

The senator noted that the administration can now put waivers in place to allow for the gradual easing of sanctions — which seems to be the cornerstone of current deals being floated. “We’re very concerned that in their desire to make any deal that they may in fact do something that is very bad for our country,” he said.

But with an incremental deal reportedly on the table at a meeting currently being held in Geneva between Iran and six world powers, Corker’s amendment is a distant legislative horizon — and a questionable one in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Even Democratic senators who support a tough sanctions regime are unlikely to support legislation that seeks to tie the Obama administration’s hands in negotiations.

The administration reportedly asked Senate Democrats for a 60-day hold on advancing the existing sanctions legislation that is currently awaiting Senate committee review, and they seem to have complied.

Robert Corker (photo credit: US Senate / Wikipedia Commons)

Democratic leaders have avoided directly commenting on the future of the new sanctions legislation, which has been delayed indefinitely en route to its first hurdle — a hearing in the Senate Banking Committee. Even Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat of New Jersey, the hawkish chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, has remained quiet this week on the chances of advancing the sanctions legislation.

His only hint as to the future of the already-drafted sanctions legislation came in an interview with CNN, when he said that “I would be willing to say that if we can get Iran to suspend its present activities as we move forward with what I hope will be fruitful negotiations, that any new round of sanctions would say that they could be ceased immediately upon Iran meeting its verifiable actions under the Security Council resolutions.”

The Democratic Senate leader also said that he supported a partial lifting of sanctions only if Iran froze all nuclear production — a statement that likely included both enrichment and the construction of the heavy water plant at Arak. Menendez’s comments echoed those made by Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In mid-October, Israel told The Cable that “if the president were to ask for a lifting of existing sanctions it would be extremely difficult in the House and Senate to support that…. I’m willing to listen but I think that asking Congress to weaken and diminish current sanctions is not hospitable on Capitol Hill.”

An interim deal currently reported to be on the table, in which Iran would cease all enrichment at 20 percent and slow down work on the heavy water reactor in Arak in exchange for the easing of sanctions, would not meet the parameters of Corker’s hypothetical legislation. The current sanctions legislation that has already passed Congress, however, contains a so-called “national security waiver,” enshrining in law the possibility for the president to lift some sanctions without seeking congressional approval.

The current reported proposal also does not meet the bare minimum for an interim deal proposed by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

The well-respected anti-nuclear proliferation think tank published this week a list of what it described as “the irreducible elements of an interim agreement with Iran.”

Central among those elements was “stopping the advance of Iran’s centrifuge and Arak reactor programs” as well as a call to reduce the stocks of highly enriched uranium in Iran that could be used to make nuclear weapons. A longer-term agreement, ISIS noted in the brief, would necessarily require the elimination of all stocks of highly enriched uranium.

Other elements of the bare minimum-agreement framework include an immediate freeze on all centrifuge production and extensive work to increase the nuclear program’s international transparency.

Kerry warns of violence if peace talks fail – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( This is the US threatening Netanyahu with Palestinian violence if he doesn’t play ball on IRAN.  This THREAT comes a week after the WH leaked that Israel attacked Syria.  Hang tough, Bibi.  Oppose this “agreement” with everything Israel has to throw at it. – JW )

US secretary of state says if Israel-PA peace talks fail, violence in region may return, notes negotiations have so far been ‘productive’

AP

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Thursday of a return to violence if faltering peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ultimately fail. He also rejected suggestions that he scale back his ambition to salvage the talks and forge a final settlement and interim agreement.

Kerry has been shuffling this week between Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan in a frantic bid to get the peace negotiations back on track amid rising public anger among Palestinians over Israeli settlement activity and among Israelis over the release of Palestinian prisoners.

“What is the alternative to peace?” Kerry asked at a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. “Prolonged continued conflict. The absence of peace really means you have a sort of low-grade conflict, war.”

“As long as the aspirations of people are held down one way or another … as long as there is this conflict and if the conflict frustrates once again so that people cannot find a solution, the possibilities of violence” increase, he said.

Kerry appealed for Israelis and Palestinians to take the peace process seriously and for their leaders to overcome differences that have hamstrung the talks since they began three months ago with the goal of reaching a deal by the end of April, 2014. He acknowledged the hurdles, but said he was convinced that both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were committed to the negotiations

“I am pleased to say that despite difficulties, and we all understand what they are, these discussions have been productive,” he said.

“Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas reaffirmed their commitment to these negotiations despite the fact that at moments there are obviously tensions over one happening or another or one place or another, whether it is in Israel or the territories,” Kerry said.

Earlier Thursday, Kerry told Jordan’s King Abdullah II that his meetings had “created some clarity on some of the points.”

He did not elaborate, but said at the news conference with Judeh that there was “significant progress in our discussions about a couple of areas of concern in the panorama of concerns that exist.”

A statement from Jordan’s Royal Palace said Abdullah, a close US Arab ally, said final status talks involve “higher Jordanian interest,” mainly a common border with a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jordan-based Palestinian refugees displaced in the 1967 Mideast war and Jerusalem, where the kingdom maintains custody over Christian and Muslim holy sites.

The king also called on the international community to help end unspecified “Israeli unilateral actions in the occupied Palestinian territories because they are illegal, illegitimate and constitute a real obstacle to peace efforts,” the statement said. He was referring to Israeli government plans to build more settlements in the West Bank.

Kerry will see Abbas again Thursday night in Amman and then return to Jerusalem on Friday for a third meeting with Netanyahu in two days before continuing with his swing through the Middle East and North Africa in the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Morocco.

Kerry brokered the re-start of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which began three months ago. But little progress has been made.

The secretary has been hit with complaints from both sides during his trip while working to maintain an optimistic tone. On Wednesday he noted that in any negotiation “there will be moments of up and moments of down.”

Tensions have been running high after Palestinians said a secret negotiating session on Tuesday broke down in a dispute over Israeli settlement construction.

The stalemate has prompted speculation that the US may need to increase its involvement in the talks and present its own outline for peace – or lower expectations and pursue a more limited, interim agreement.

Tension was running high and on clear display after the Palestinians said a secret negotiating session on Tuesday broke down in an acrimonious dispute over Israeli settlement construction. Introducing Kerry in Bethlehem, the town’s mayor denounced settlements as a “siege” on Palestinian land and people; Netanyahu opened his first meeting with Kerry by bashing the Palestinians for their behavior in the peace talks.

Kerry rejected the idea of an interim agreement, saying it had been tried before and not worked.

“An interim agreement, only if it embraces the concept of a final status might be a step on the way but you can’t just do an interim agreement and pretend you are all the way there,” he said.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. They say they’re willing to adjust those borders to allow Israel to keep some West Bank settlements as part of a “land swap.”

Netanyahu opposes a withdrawal to Israel’s pre-1967 lines, saying such borders would be indefensible.

He has also demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, a condition they reject on the grounds that it would harm the rights of Israel’s Arab minority and Palestinian refugees who claim lost properties inside what is now Israel. Netanyahu also rejects shared control of east Jerusalem, home to key religious sites and the Palestinians’ hoped-for capital.